Pandemonium
by The Modern Sorcerer
Summary: Every Half-Blood has one godly parent, this we know: however, Harry is different because of one reason: through the ways of the divine, he has more than one god for a parent - and those parents are NOT happy at being entered into the Triwizard Tournament against his will. The solution is simple, give their son the power to make the whole shake and quiver. DISCONTINUED.
1. Chapter 1

_**Salutations all my friends and readers out there!**_

 _ **So you all would have noticed that I had taken '**_ **Pandemonium** _ **' and '**_ **Glorious Chaos** _ **' down after reaching obstacles in the road to writing them both, however due to multiple requests for their return and the most helpful – er help – of another reader who took the time to metaphorically sit me down and have a chat, I've decided to put Pandemonium back up for the public to read and cringe over!**_

 _ **I want to reiterate for any new readers that this story is NOT in progress and is marked as complete for a reason. Do not expect any more updates to this story for the foreseeable future, I'm only posting it because it has fans who wanted it back, and how could I deny them when I remember the pain I felt when Ianto Jones died and didn't come back either?**_

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"The Durmstrang Champion is… Viktor Krum!"

Harry Potter felt his body tensing even further at the name, squeezing the hand in his gently as he shot his best friend a nervous look.

"One down," Hermione whispered to him. Ron was shooting her a curious glance from across the table, their hands thankfully hidden beneath the table top. "Just relax, you'll give yourself a heart attack," she added softly, when Ron turned away.

"Rather my own body killed me than the Tournament," Harry murmured back, forcing an uncomfortable smile onto his face for her.

As the burly Hungarian Seeker left the Great Hall and entered the Trophy Room beyond it, Harry watched as the Goblet of Fire flared red once more, a second slip of paper flying from its mouth. "The Champion for Beauxbatons is," Dumbledore called out slowly as he turned to face the stands where the French students were all gathered, "Fleur Delacour!"

"She has beautiful hair," Hermione mumbled absently. Harry couldn't stop himself from turning to grin at her, making her blush as her hand rose up to tug at her hair. "Look at her Harry. I look like I licked a power socket or something," she defended.

"I dunno, your hair has definitely calmed down," he whispered back to her, making her blush deepen.

"Hey! Chris McMillan," Seamus hissed from his other side, "Hogwarts' is about to be announced, so zip it!"

"Hogwarts Champion!" Dumbledore called out as he unfolded the slip of paper, "Cedric Diggory!"

"Oh thank Merlin," Harry exhaled as the Great Hall erupted into cheers, "It wasn't me".

"Told you so Harry!" Hermione pointed out smugly, as they watched Cedric standing to a round of applause, "You had nothing to worry about, Dumbledore wouldn't let you get entered against-" "HARRY POTTER" "-your will," she finished weakly, as the dreaded call interrupted her.

Harry's stomach clenched painfully, as he stared up the Great Hall, to where Dumbledore was standing with a fourth piece of parchment in his hand. He was looking around slowly to try find him. This was it then? He couldn't just get the murder attempt over and done with this year. It had to be spread out across the year as part of the Tournament, set up for people three years his senior?

"HARRY POTTER!" Dumbledore called out again.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione whimpered, as heads swivelled and people started looking for him, angry mutters slowly beginning to fill the air.

"Screw them!" Harry muttered stubbornly, slumping down in his seat, "I'm not moving".

"Harry Potter?" Dumbledore called out, Harry meeting the old man's blue eyes as they sought him out where he was trying to slouch. "Harry Potter!"

"Harry!" Hermione hissed, "Go on".

"Screw them!" Harry repeated angrily, as everyone stared, Ron's face steadily turning an angry red from opposite them. "I didn't put my name in, you know I didn't!" he argued.

"Tell them that," Hermione explained, "Tell them the truth and they'll take you out of it. The Ministry won't stand for this!"

"Since when has the Ministry ever been competent?" Harry countered, standing slowly and stepping out into the aisle. Taking a deep breath, he announced to the hall, "No, I didn't put my name in and I'm not competing. Just- Just no."

Before anyone could react, Harry turned and stalked out of the Great Hall, ignoring the wave of furious whispers that followed him. Clenching and unclenching his hands as he walked, Harry headed straight towards Gryffindor Tower. His hand twitched with the urge to just walk back into the Great Hall and hit the Goblet with the strongest ' _Bombarda'_ he could manage.

He wasn't even surprised that his name was called out. Since the announcement of the Triwizard Tournament, Harry was simply waiting for the other shoe to drop. After all, since his arrival to Hogwarts, he had fought of a possessed teacher, killed a thousand year old Basilisk, and saved his falsely imprisoned godfather from a horde of Dementors. Typical, really.

The only question had been _how_ it would try to kill him. And truth be told, Harry was a little disappointed at how unoriginal the Goblet was. Couldn't it have just exploded and taken him down with it? Or perhaps it could have fallen on him and squashed him like a bug?

"Mr Potter!"

Stride faltering for a moment at his favourite Professor's voice, Harry slowed down but kept walking, giving Professor McGonagall the chance to catch up with him. "I'm afraid you have to go back in Mr Potter," the Professor apologized instantly, her voice neutral as if she didn't know whether to be angry or sympathetic, "Explain your side of things to the Judges and get them to withdraw your name. It's their duty to ensure your safety."

"I get the feeling they wouldn't believe me even if I did," Harry snorted darkly, his face twisting into a scowl as he kept walking. "No offence Professor, but I'm used to adults fucking me over," he said bluntly.

"Mr Potter!" McGonagall exclaimed, sounding both scandalized and offended.

"I'm sorry Professor, but you can't deny it," Harry snapped, as he spun around to stare at the flustered woman. "Every time I've gone to an adult, they've either dismissed me out of hand or tried to kill me. So I give up, if I go back in there then I'll be accused of cheating and then told that I have no choice but to compete. By leaving like this I can start researching ways to stay alive straight away," he explained simply.

Professor McGonagall stared at him for a moment, her lips pursed as she studied him. "You've given this a lot of thought haven't you?" she asked slowly.

"Well, Hermione did most of the thinking," he mumbled awkwardly, "But I've been here for three years Professor, and I've almost been killed during all three of those years. The moment the Tournament was announced, we knew what was going to happen. Hermione started planning what we'd do instantly, even if she tried to hide it from me," he finished, trying to justify his actions.

Professor McGonagall reached into her pocket and bought out a piece of parchment, tapping it with her wand and handing it to him with a knowing look. "I think you'll be needing this," she decided, "I would tell you to not share the books, but I doubt I would get to sleep tonight without Miss Granger banging down my door for her own slip."

Harry blinked down at the pass to the Restricted Section of the library in shock. "As your Head of House, I do hope you will come to me, should you or Miss Granger need _any_ assistance," McGonagall added, before turning and striding away, leaving him standing there with a bemused expression.

"Huh" Harry exhaled as he glanced down at the pass in his hands, the corner of his lip twitching up in the ghost of a smile. "What d'you know?" he murmured to himself, "Someone finally on my side."

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"I don't get it! Why are there no books on Magical Contracts here?" Hermione exclaimed in annoyance, "This is Hogwarts, there has to be at least _one_!"

Harry twitched uncomfortably in his chair, catching Hermione's attention with the movement as he pulled a face. "I think there were books," he agreed slowly, "I think…I think someone got them all out on purpose. Let me finish," he said quickly, when the bushy-haired girl opened her mouth to speak, "We know there are books on Magical Contracts. We used them last year to help Hagrid and Buckbeak remember? But now suddenly, on the night my name gets pulled from the Goblet of Fire, they all disappear? I don't think that's a coincidence Hermione."

"So what? You think the person who put your name in the Goblet issued them all out to stop you from finding a way out of the contract?" Hermione asked sceptically.

"It makes sense," Harry pointed out with a shrug, "Not that I think they were actually dumb enough to issue them out, that'd leave a paper trail. I think they would have snuck in and just taken them; that's what I would have done."

"You have a habit of just taking things anyway," Hermione muttered under her breath, making Harry blush awkwardly at the mention of his instinctive hoarding. "I think you might be right though," she confessed thoughtfully before standing up, "I'm going to get all the books I can find on the Triwizard Tournament. There might be hints at what to expect."

"Other than pain and dismemberment, you mean?" Harry dead-panned making Hermione scowl at him.

"You go put that pass to good use," she scolded, "Go find some spell books you think might be useful," she ordered, pointing her finger in the direction of the Restricted Section.

"Yes Professor Granger," Harry replied in mock obedience, standing and quickly making his way towards the back rooms as Hermione's squawk of mock outrage followed him through the shelves.

Quickly entering the dark section of the library, Harry mumbled out a Lumos charm and held his glowing wand out in front of him. Walking down the aisles, Harry stared at the tomes, looking for something that might be useful. Picking a shelf at random, he squinted at the book titles. Glancing at one that wasn't in a language he recognised, Harry froze as he watched the letters glow softly before 'dancing' across the spine of the book and settling into a golden embossed _'Book of Faces'._

Shifting his grip on his wand awkwardly, Harry pulled the red leather book from the shelf and carried it down the aisle to a small desk. Frowning down at the strangely familiar book, Harry ran his fingers over the letters on the front as they reshuffled themselves into English as well, a dull throbbing coming to life behind Harry's eyes. Reaching out, Harry opened the book to a random page and let out a startled yelp as a face suddenly pushed through the page and started screaming at him.

Slamming the book shut quickly, he clutched at his chest in shock, feeling his heart pounding like a jack-hammer as hurried footsteps warned him seconds before Hermione burst around the corner, a wild look in her eyes and her wand-tip glowing brightly.

"I'm okay," Harry assured her quickly, "Just, uh, just a scary book, is all," he dismissed weakly.

Hermione shot him a disbelieving look and moved over to push him out of the way, not noticing the smirk tugging at his lips as she squinted down at the book cover in the dim wand-light. "I think it's in Latin," she mumbled, "I can't read what it says, my Latin is rather limited to guessing what spells do."

"It says 'Book of Faces'," Harry reported with a shrug, confused about how he could read it when his Latin was normally worse than Hermione's.

"You can barely read English Harry," Hermione pointed out dryly, "Dyslexia doesn't mean you can read other languages perfectly."

"I dunno Hermione, I just know it says 'Book of Faces'," he defended, as Hermione gave him a slight disbelieving look. "Open it," he suggested innocently.

While, the look Hermione gave him implied she didn't believe his innocent face at all, she still turned back to the book however and opened it without fanfare to a random page. Harry couldn't stop his chuckle as Hermione screamed back at the book, flailing backwards and tripping over her own feet, hitting the ground as Harry cast a spell on the book to close it. "You _bastard_!" she hissed, scrambling to her feet with a glare on her face, "You did that on purpose!"

Harry paused for effect before nodding simply. "Yup," he admitted plainly, not wishing to insult either of their intelligence when they both would know he had been lying.

Hermione scowled at him before smoothing down her robes and sniffed indignantly, "I'm going to start reading the books on the Tournament" she decided, "You can join me, when you decide to start being serious."

As Hermione swept away ignoring his apology, Harry rolled his shoulders and strengthened his Lumos charm, grabbing the Book of Faces to return it to the shelves. Continuing his search, Harry skipped a series of books creepily entitled _'Fearful Magicks of the Soul'_ , and instead focused on a book simply called the _'Fire Grimoire'_ in the strange Latin that danced into English.

Hesitantly pulling the book from the shelf, Harry propped it up in his elbow and placed his hand on the lock to see if it would open. A hiss of pain slipped from his lips as something cut him and he dropped the book to the ground. Holding his wand over his hand, Harry scowled at the small gash that had opened up on his palm, freezing as he saw something glowing. He glanced past his hand in time to see the lock on the book flare once and vanish.

Grimacing, Harry squatted down and prodded nervously at the book, waiting until he was sure nothing was going to happen before pulling it open. Watching as the Latin written on the pages glowed and turned into English, Harry's jaw dropped as he realised the book was apparently an in-depth guide to fire-based spells, if the pages he could see in front of him were any indication. Picking the book up to show Hermione, Harry froze at the sight of what was beneath the book, blood still dripping from the gash on his hand and swirling across the floor to form a captivatingly familiar symbol.

A wand, made out of what look like his blood appeared on the floor with two crescent moons sitting back to back on either side of the wand's middle. Their curves pointing away from the wand, facing in opposite directions. Even though he couldn't place it, Harry was one hundred percent certain that he had seen the symbol somewhere before.

"Mr Potter!"

Harry's head snapped up guiltily to see Madam Pince standing at the end of the aisle with a glare on her face, "Detention!" the witch barked as Harry stood up quickly, "The Restricted Section is forbidden to those without proper authorization!"

"Oh! Uh, I have permission," Harry quickly corrected, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the slip Professor McGonagall gave to him, handing it over to the approaching Librarian. Faltering as he stared at his uninjured hand in confusion, he almost missed the woman's gentle apology.

"If there is anything I can do to help you find a book in here let me know Mr Potter," Madam Pince continued, "some of these books are cursed and as such can be dangerous."

"Yeah, I already found one that screamed at me when I opened it," Harry mumbled awkwardly, as he hoped the Librarian didn't look down at the small pool of his blood on the floor.

"Ah the Book of Faces," Pince murmured slowly, "Useless book. Doesn't contain anything of note. It _does_ scare the youngsters something fierce, though."

Blinking in shock at the Librarian's apparent sadistic side, Harry mumbled out a farewell as she turned and strode away from him, leaving him to look down at the now shapeless pool of blood at his feet. Swallowing uncertainly, Harry vanished the blood with a wave of his wand and hurried out of the Restricted Section to where Hermione was waiting for him.

"I found this," Harry began as he sat down, wanting to put the blood symbol out of his mind, "It looks like an entire book on fire magic."

"That's good," Hermione murmured hesitantly, looking pained and angry at the same time, "Because apparently the tasks are related to the four elements."

"Hermione?" Harry pushed slowly when she didn't look up at him, "What's wrong?"

"I spoke to Madam Pince when she arrived," Hermione confessed, "And I asked to see the issuing logs. I found out who 'stole' the books on Magical Contracts."

Harry blinked at her in shock, not actually having expected someone to be that stupid and feeling slightly dumb for dismissing it out of hand earlier. "Who was it?" he asked when Hermione didn't continued, "Was it Vol- You-Know-Who?" he added nervously.

"Worse," Hermione admitted, a look of betrayal in her eyes as she finally looked up at him, "Albus Dumbledore."

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"If you don't want everyone else to know, fine, but I don't know why you're bothering to lie. You didn't get into trouble for it, did you?" Ron ground out, his disbelief and the barely hidden anger already, cluing Harry in that his friend didn't believe him.

"That friend of the Fat Lady's, Violet, she's already told us what happened," Ron continued, "Dumbledore and the Ministry are letting you enter. A thousand Galleons prize money, eh? And you don't have to do the end of year tests either," he said slowly.

"But I didn't put my name in that Goblet!" Harry snapped, his own temper beginning to rise at the red-head's stupidity, "Hermione and I have been spending the entire night trying to find a way out of it!"

"Yeah, OK," said Ron, stubbornly refusing to budge, "I'm not stupid, you know?"

"Yeah, well you've definitely fooled me with the impression you're currently doing," Harry forced out coldly.

"Yeah?" Ron asked, his face going dark. "You might want to get to bed Harry, I expect you'll need to be up early for a photo call or something."

He sneered at him, before spinning around and climbing onto his bed, violently yanking the hangings shut around the four-poster bed.

"Stubborn arse," Harry spat, knowing full well that Ron could still hear him.

Growling under his breath, Harry turning and stalked into the bathroom, hitting the door with a locking spell, in addition to dropping the bar over it. Turning on the taps at the sink with a flick of his wand, Harry placed it on the side of the sink and leaned forward to splash his face, wishing pointlessly that he could wake up to find he had just fallen asleep waiting for the names to be called. Groaning to himself as he splashed his face again and scrubbed at his previously injured palm absently, Harry shook his head like a dog to clear most of the water off before exhaling slowly and looking up at the mirror.

As he stared at his reflection, he jumped as the mirror fogged up as if someone was breathing on it, watching in growing horror as the symbol from the library floor was slowly drawn on the steamy mirror. Nervously reaching for his wand, Harry froze in place as two red pinpricks appeared in the mirror. A couple of seconds passing before he realised that someone with red eyes was watching him _through_ the mirror.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when the mirror rippled and a pale hand reached through it to grasp the front of his robes, roughly pulling him through before he could react.

Falling through the blackness that now surrounded him, Harry flailed uselessly before landing in something with a loud splash, the liquid filling his mouth even as he instinctively inhaled. Instead of choking and spluttering like he expected to do, Harry just breathed in a mouthful of pure air, leaving him fully submerged for a moment, before his brain caught up and he kicked off the bottom the of the pool he was in.

Breaching the surface of the water, Harry felt dozens of hands grasping his somehow dry clothing and heaving him out of the pool to drop him on the ground. Giggles filling the air as hands clung to him, Harry wiped his eyes on the back of his hand even as he struggled to free himself from the black-haired and red-eyed women surrounding him with huge black wings sprouting from their backs.

"Come now my sweets," a silky voice drawled from somewhere beyond the mass of touchy women, "Let's not overwhelm your brother shall we?"

Harry had just brushed off the use of the word 'brother' when the women parted, revealing a final woman lounging gracefully on a huge black throne, a familiar woman with fire-red hair and gleaming emerald green eyes.

"Oh my little Hadrian," the Lily look-alike whispered softly, a gentle smile on her face as she reached a hand towards Harry, cupping the air as one would a face. "You look just like your father," she exhaled with a longing expression on her face.

"Wh- who?" Harry gasped out, his body trembling against his will under the sheer amount of power he could see in her eyes.

"Who am I?" the woman finished knowingly. "Some call me Eris, and others Discordia. I am the Goddess of Discord," she introduced quietly, standing from her throne and beginning to sway her way towards him. "The Queen of Strife. The Inventor of the Slinky. And Bringer of sweet, _glorious_ , Chaos," she breathed out as she knelt before him and cupped his face truly this time.

"But of course," she continued with a small smirk, "You can just call me 'Mum'."


	2. Chapter 2

"Mum?" Harry echoed slowly, wondering if he had finally snapped and gone around the bend.

"That's right," 'Eris' agreed with a blinding flash of white teeth, "Now, try saying it ten times faster."

"You're crazy," he exhaled, slowly shaking his head, as he dislodged her hand. He brought his own up to drag it down his face.

"Only a little," Eris countered dismissively, pulling his hands away from his face and staring at him intently. "Good, those are my eyes," she murmured to herself, as Harry found himself being swarmed by the half-naked bird women again.

"You must forgive them, Hadrian," Eris said with a roll of her eyes, "They've been forced to wait fourteen years to even touch their little brother, so they are a little excited."

"I'm not their brother!" Harry snapped, forcibly shoving the women away and quickly scrambling to his feet, darting away from the horde of crazy women. "And you're not my mother," he added, "My mother was Lily Evans."

"Who I just happen to look like?" Eris asked pointedly.

"I can name four glamour spells from the top of my head," Harry dead-panned coldly, glaring at the woman who dared to insult his mother's name.

"I'm the Goddess of Discord and Strife, Hadrian," Eris claimed slowly, not looking at all annoyed by his words, "Even though I fought with the Olympians during the Titanomachy, I was still looked upon coldly by Zeus. So, I swore that I would go into isolation, and to never move against Olympus. I then made myself a pocket dimension that I call Tartarus," she explained as she gestured around the temple he was in. "However, I am the Goddess of Discord and Strife," she repeated, "I am a very chaotic being. And as such, whenever I have a child their own power tears them apart before they can take their first breath. But, with the help of a Goddess who shall remain nameless, I discovered a way to ensure the survival of my next attempt

"Unfortunately, Lily Evans got distracted by mortal desires and fell in love," Eris continued as Harry watched her and his pouting 'sisters' cautiously. "Lily eventually got married to James Potter, and knowing I was incapable of having children normally, I followed the plan and engineered a situation where a God would unwittingly aid us in having a child. And thus, Hadrian James Salvator Potter was born," she finished slowly.

"Harry, my name's Harry," he corrected, "And you're still insane." He turned away from the women and running his hand down his face again. "This is just what I needed, the Triwizard Tournament and a case of extreme insanity at the same time," he muttered under his breath.

"I can help with the Tournament," Eris offered in a sing-song voice, "And the insanity? Well you're my son, so it's only a matter of time before you become slightly unhinged."

As much as he wanted to deny it, Harry couldn't help the way his body stiffened and his ears perked up at the offer of aid. Crazy the woman may be, but Harry needed all the help he could get with the upcoming Tournament, it wasn't like he had enough supporters as it was.

"Now you're listening aren't you?" Eris asked knowingly, "You may be able to win this Tournament through magic, but if you want to do it stylishly and easily, then you should begin practising your godly powers."

Harry couldn't stop his shoulders from sagging in annoyance as he turned around to scowl at Eris. "I would use my 'godly powers'?" he questioned in a snapping voice, "That would work except for one tiny matter. Since my mother is Lily Potter and not some Roman God, I'm afraid I don't have any of these 'godly powers'."

"Actually Lily was split from me, or rather, my Greek aspect," Eris explained, "And before you ask, think of the Roman and Greek aspects as one person with two personalities. Some of the Gods change drastically between aspects, but others like myself are too universal to change too much. The only differences between my aspects are that, as Discordia, I'm more violent and less mischievous."

Harry stared at the 'Goddess' for a moment, before nodding slowly, part of him wondering if it were possible that neither of them were as insane as he thought. "So if I was really some half Greek god, then shouldn't I have something to show for it?" he asked pointedly, his mouth making the decision before his mind could.

"You're one of Hecate's Blessed. A Wizard," Eris clarified, when Harry open his mouth, "To stop magical Demigods from accidentally tearing the Mist, it was decided that a magical Demigod's magic would suppress their godly powers until they're claimed by their parent. The moment your name came out of that giant egg cup, the godly power entwined within the Goblet began speeding up the natural awakening of your heritage. Going through puberty as you are, your awakening should work much faster than usual to help you catch up, as it were, with where you would be naturally. It's what allowed you to read the Latin in those books," she explained.

"And once you 'claim' me," Harry began, hiding his scepticism, "I'll begin developing my 'godly powers'?"

"Yes," Eris agreed simply, making Harry blink in shock at the blunt admission.

"Right…and, uh, what godly powers are these again?" he asked slowly.

"Unfortunately, since I was Greek during your conception it means you'll be less combat-oriented than your Roman cousins," Eris said with a shrug, moving back to sink down onto her throne, "So it's likely you'll find my gifts…lacking…considering they're not something you can club people with, but I assure you, they are powerful in the right hands.

"I'm the Goddess of Discord and Strife," she continued when Harry just stared at her. "And as my son, your heritage will be along those lines. The power to induce chaos and discord with a mere wave of your hand, the power to cast illusions and to spread strife with a snap of your fingers" she exhaled with a pleased expression on her face. Her face then turned into a frown. "I'm not sure what powers you inherited from your father though," she said, crossing her arms, "The ritual called for godly essence, which means it's 'untainted' by Roman or Greek aspects, so there is no way of telling."

Harry paused as her words slowly filtered through his mind. "Hold on, you mean my father is a God too?" he blurted, a resigned look crossing his face. "Now I know I'm crazy, having one God for a parent is unlikely enough, without having two."

"I also said that I couldn't have a child normally," Eris countered, sticking her tongue out at him childishly, "Albus Dumbledore presented us with the very ritual I had arranged for Lily to discover mere days later. It summoned a 'higher power' to help the casters conceive. In all honesty, I do not know if your father is even male, all I know is that their essence infused James' seed when he impregnated Lily".

"I dunno, it sounds kind of…convenient…to me," Harry muttered, as he tried to find a slip-up to target in her explanation. (And if that stopped him from thinking about his father impregnating his mother then that was just an added bonus).

"Perhaps, but if Dumbledore did not offer us the ritual then Lily would have 'accidentally' stumbled across it herself," Eris dismissed, "And I know not which God it was," she added as Harry's mouth opened, "Lily didn't have the power to scan the God's essence, and even if she did, doing so would have alerted the God to my essence within her. I know they were a God, simply because that is what the ritual called for."

Harry stared at the 'Goddess' for a moment longer as he searched for another argument, "Lily Evans was a model student!" he blurted quickly, "She didn't like my father because he was a prankster. And besides, I'm not a prankster, so how I can be the son of the Goddess of Discord?"

"I'm the Goddess of Discord, Had- Harry," Eris corrected slowly, "Not the Goddess of Mischief. I don't prank people, I'm more in the business of causing conflict and supporting anarchy. Though, Hermes is a laugh whenever I talk to him."

"Oh," Harry exhaled nervously, jumping as a hand touched his hair, making him flinch and jump away from the winged women.

"And you might as well let them inspect you," Eris suggested, with a small smile, as another winged woman reached for him again. "They're too simple to understand personal space and too curious to leave you alone. These are Makhai, by the way, Spirits of War. I built their bodies of ether and gifted them with a touch of my essence, just like I did your other half-siblings," she explained proudly, "While they excel at the purpose I birthed them for, they're no more than children in all other aspects of their lives."

Standing stiffly as Eris spoke, Harry tried his hardest to not flinch away from the hands that were combing through his hair and picking at his clothes. "Half-siblings?" he asked hesitantly, swatting away a hand that dipped below his belt.

"In essence only," Eris confirmed, "They have no physical bodies, so a blood connection is impossible. So, while you remain my only Demigod child, my Firstborn at that, I do have other children, in a way."

"Firstborn?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Indeed. As such you will be more powerful than the average demigod, perhaps on par with a child of the Big Three, should there be any," Eris explained.

Swatting away the hand again, Harry watched as Eris waved a hand and a crystal ball appeared in her hand. "You must leave," she decided suddenly, "You cannot remain without a physical body for too long, and I do not wish your body to be discovered. We will meet again Harry, and we will begin training your powers. Be careful my son," she whispered gently, a longing look flashing through her eyes as she waved a hand.

Gasping in shock as both icy coldness and fiery heat rolled through his body, Harry sat up quickly, looking around the bathroom in confusion. Frowning slightly, as he slowly made his way to his feet, Harry stared at the mirror on the wall, a smiley face scrawled in the steam, instead of Eris' symbol. Hearing people yelling back in the dorm room, he snatched up his wand and unlocked the door, stepping out and freezing at the sight of Ron, Neville, and Seamus glaring each other down with their wands pointing at each other.

"Explain," he ordered coldly, "I'm not in the mood to deal with this shit right now."

"I caught Ron helping himself to your trunk," Neville reported instantly, all traces of his stutter gone, "And judging by what I heard in here, I figured he wasn't exactly welcome to your things".

"Thank you Neville," Harry said slowly, changing his wand's target to Ron and Seamus instead. "And Seamus?" he asked expectantly.

"I'm with Neville," Seamus claimed quickly, "But uh, did you put your name in the Goblet?" he asked cautiously.

"If you knew me you wouldn't have to ask that," Harry ground out. When Seamus just nodded, seemingly agreeing with him, he barely hid his shock from the other boy. After three years of rooming with him, he was honestly expecting the Irish boy to blame him anyway, instead of siding with him so quickly.

"Then it seems that Ron doesn't know you at all," Neville muttered, making Harry nod in agreement.

"So it does," he agreed coldly as Ron sneered at him. "Now put whatever you stole back, before I curse you so badly that not even Madam Pomfrey could put you back together," he threatened bluntly.

"I didn't steal anything," Ron snapped darkly, "I was borrowing your invisibility cloak. You didn't need it anyway and I wanted something from the kitchens."

"You were taking my invisibility cloak without my permission or knowledge," Harry corrected coldly, not lowering his wand from where it was pointing at Ron's face, "You weren't allowed to do that even when we were still friends."

Ron's face darkened again and the redhead stomped past him, wisely making sure he didn't brush against the angry Harry. "S'everything alright, Harry?" Neville asked softly as the door was slammed shut behind Ron.

Harry sagged down for a moment before starting towards his bed. "No," he confessed simply, "No, it's not."

"Well, if you need anything," Neville offered with a shrug, Harry faltering as he glanced up at the two boys who were preparing for bed as well.

He could feel something, a faint humming behind his eyes, whenever he looked at either boy. He hadn't felt it when he looked at Ron though, so either it was new or it was just something dependant on the person.

"So uh…what was it like?" Seamus asked suddenly, making both Harry and Neville jump awkwardly, turning to face the other boy.

"What was what like?" Harry asked cautiously, not sure about what he was talking about.

"You know," Seamus pressed as Neville flicked his wand at the doors. "You spoke to your parent didn't you?" he asked with a grin, excitement on his face as even Neville started at him eagerly, "We could feel them from down in the common room, s'why we came up and caught Ron."

"Wait, with my parent?" Harry blurted in shock, staring between the two boys in surprise. "You mean..."

"We're Demigods too," Neville confirmed nervously, "We're not the only ones either. The Gods are kind of the worst kept Pure-blood secret. A lot of old Pure-blood lines have godly heritage in them somewhere."

"Aye, there aren't many of us in England, now that the Gods moved to America, but there are a few here at Hogwarts," Seamus explained.

"So she was telling the truth then?" Harry asked softly, collapsing down onto the end of his bed, "I'm not crazy?"

"Well, she was telling the truth," Seamus corrected, grinning, as Harry scowled at him without thinking. "Nah, it's all real. Seamus Finnegan, Son of Hephaestus, at your service," he introduced with an over dramatic bow.

"My mother is Demeter," Neville explained as Harry glanced at him.

"So? Who's your mum? You said 'she' right?" Seamus asked curiously.

"Uh," Harry began hesitantly, part of him wanting to deny it and pretend it had never happened. "Eris. It was Eris," he confessed, staring down at his hands.

Silence answered him, making him bite back a wince as he looked up to his room-mates' shocked faces. "As in the Goddess of Discord Eris?" Neville finally asked, looking twice as nervous as he had before, "The Goddess that started the Trojan War?"

Harry did flinch at that. He may not know much about Greek mythology, but he did know what the Trojan War was, and the idea that the Goddess who was apparently his mother caused them didn't sit well in his stomach.

"Awesome," Seamus exhaled bluntly, "I've never heard of a child of Eris before."

"There aren't any," Neville murmured quietly, "Not Demigod ones at least. That would make you a Firstborn."

Harry sat there fidgeting for a moment, the way the two boys were staring at him making the hair and the back of his neck rise up. "It isn't bad is it?" he asked hesitantly.

"No way, this is cool!" Seamus corrected with a grin.

"It's not bad Harry. I'm uh, I'm sure Eris is a nice person," Neville agreed when the Irish boy elbowed him in the side. "You're still Harry," he added with a shrug, "Son of Eris or not, you're still my friend."

"Tell ya what Harry, we'll introduce you to the rest of us Demigods tomorrow, aye?" Seamus said, patting Harry on the shoulder.

"Yeah, we'll all be on your side for the Tournament, Harry," Neville agreed.

As Neville turned to start getting ready for bed, Seamus following after, Harry looked back down to his hands. If this was real, if Gods and Demigods were real, then Hermione would know something about them. And if he was religious (Which he felt he should be, if his mother was a Goddess), then he'd pray that Hermione believed him, because he didn't know if he could survive this Tournament without her.

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"A Goddess."

"Right," Harry confirmed hesitantly, staring at the lake in front of him as they sat side by side in the cold air, the following morning.

"A Greek Goddess."

"Yup. And Seamus and Neville too," he agreed nervously, still not looking over at Hermione.

"Well…you said you woke up on the floor? Maybe you-" Hermione began.

"No," Harry interrupted, "It was real. I can…I can just feel it, I know it's real. I don't exactly believe it, but it was real. It happened."

Hermione didn't reply straight away, but when she did she sounded too sceptical for Harry. "I'll have to do some research, before I say anything on it Harry," she admitted, "Just be careful around her. I don't like it, and I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm not stupid Hermione," Harry muttered quietly, feeling offended even though he knew Hermione was just being cautious, "I'm not going to trust her just because she claims to be my mother. Besides, we'll be meeting the rest of the 'Demigods', later today."

"I know you're not Harry," Hermione assured him, "I just don't want to you to agree to anything because you think you might not survive the Tournament," she explained gently. "We don't need Ron to help you through this, we can do this together and still come out on top. After all," she added with a sniff, "If you can defeat You-Know-Who three times before now, I think you can win this Tournament."

"I had help each of those times," Harry began slowly.

"And what I am now? Your cheerleader?" Hermione asked pointedly making him roll his eyes.

"Is that an offer?" he countered innocently, not fighting it when he was swatted around the back of the head in response, "Seriously though Hermione, I can't do this without you," Harry mumbled slowly.

"And I wouldn't make you," Hermione promised, making him smile as a weight he didn't know he was carrying was lifted off his shoulders, "And when Ron comes around he'll help us, and when you send that letter to Sirius he'll be able to help us in any way he can."

"No," Harry denied, "Sirius is going to run as far away as he can. I don't want him coming back and getting caught because of me. He promised we could live together," he added softly.

"Well unless Pettigrew put you in this Tournament, I think you need to put him out of your mind," Hermione suggested thoughtfully. "Do you still have that book of fire spells?" she asked curiously, "I was thinking last night and I believe that while we need to focus on offensive and defensive magic, a collection of charms and transfiguration could change the playing field."

"It's in my trunk," Harry agreed slowly, "Which was covered by my invisibility cloak and hidden under my bed," he added with a scowl, "Ron won't be able to help himself to it again."

"Seriously! That boy has the emotional range of a teaspoon and the intelligence of a dead ferret!" Hermione exclaimed, "I can't believe he'd be jealous of you like this!"

Harry choked on his breath, coughing as he turned to stare at Hermione in shock. "He's jealous?" he blurted in disgust, "He's turning his back on me because he's fucking jealous?"

"Language!" Hermione scolded instantly, "And I did say the emotional range of a teaspoon Harry. I know he's your best friend, but there are times I wonder how many times Mrs Weasley dropped him on his head as a baby, especially since his brothers are nothing like him," she explained, pulling a face as she blushed slightly.

"Well, Percy's a bit of a prat," Harry pointed out making Hermione snort.

"Come on," Hermione decided, quickly climbing to her feet and holding her hand out to help Harry up as well. "Let's go get some more books and then go talk to Professor McGonagall," she declared as Harry groaned at the thought of going to the library, "We need a place to practice these spells and I doubt Madam Pince would do anything other than eviscerate us if we tried to cast fire spells in her library."

"Eviscerate?" Harry echoed dumbly as he obediently followed his best friend towards the castle again.

"It means disembowel," Hermione explained over her shoulder, "She'd slice open our stomachs and pull out our intestines".

He froze as Hermione kept moving, staring at her back in horror. "Has anyone told you that you're scary sometimes?" he called after her.

Hermione looked over her shoulder. "Yes," she replied simply with a smile, "Many, many times."

As Harry raced to catch up, he absently noted he felt that same humming sensation behind his eyes from last night, whenever he met Hermione's eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

"Can I help you Mr Potter?" Professor McGonagall asked him slowly, a relieved smile tugging at her lips as Harry came to a stop before her.

"Yes Professor," Harry confirmed, as he ignored the buzzing whispers from the other students as he walked up the aisle to the Head Table. "Hermione and I were hoping you'd know of a room where I could practice the spells we'll be researching," he explained calmly, refusing to take the angry burning in his chest from the sight of Dumbledore out on Professor McGonagall. "It's just that some of the spells we've found so far are kind of explosive and we'd rather not accidentally destroy the castle," he added with a shrug.

"I can think of a room or two that might serve your purposes," Professor McGonagall confirmed with a small nod, "If you will give me some time to get them ready, then I will meet you in the library and show you and Miss Granger."

"Thank you Professor," Harry said slowly, feeling the knot in his chest loosen as he realised that he might actually be able to do this.

"Harry my boy," Dumbledore's voice rang out as he turned away to leave, "If you will meet me in my office, I believe we need to discuss your behaviour last night."

"What is there to discuss?" Harry countered coldly as he turned back, forcing a smile onto his lips as he faced the aged Headmaster. "You've once more showed me that you're willing to just sit back and watch, as the self-acclaimed 'safest place in all of Britain' tries to kill me. Again," he ground out. "Unless you're going to tell me that I don't have to compete in the Tournament, I don't want to hear another word out of your mouth."

"I know you're angry Mr Potter, but I am your Headmaster," Dumbledore began, barely restrained frustration in his voice.

"For now," Harry interrupted in a blunt and cold voice, his forced smile becoming a smirk, as Dumbledore froze. "Good day Professors, Headmasters," he spoke politely, before turning and walking away, keeping his back straight and his head high. As he walked down the middle of the Great Hall, the focus of everyone's attention, the furious whispers continued.

Not relaxing until he was sinking into the chair opposite Hermione, the brown-haired witch busy writing out a 'lesson plan' for him, Harry barely hit himself with a silencing charm before letting out a scream. Sagging down as he felt the tension seeping from his muscles, Harry looked up to smile tiredly at Hermione and nodded simply, not wanting to talk about it.

"Did you get the room?" Hermione asked instead, thankfully picking up on his non-verbal sign. "You're still silenced Harry," she interrupted as he tried to answer her.

"McGonagall has an idea and she'll meet us in here when she's ready," he repeated as he countered the spell. "And Dumbledore tried to pull me to his office," he continued, "It was all I could do to not yell or hex him," he confessed slowly.

"We don't actually know that he put your name in," Hermione reminded him, "The evidence isn't in his favour, but until we get more all we know is that he took out the books on magical contracts yesterday."

Sighing as he realised she was right, Harry just shrugged, "I'm not apologizing."

"I'm not asking you to," Hermione dismissed with a sniff. "Go look through the Charms aisles for any more books on elemental magic instead," she instructed.

Harry half got out of his seat, when he suddenly remembered his dream from before the Quidditch World Cup. "Hermione," he began slowly.

"Yes?" she asked, not looking up.

"Did I ever tell you about that odd dream I had in the summer?" he blurted, wanting to get it out, but still hesitant about scaring his only friend off.

Now, Hermione looked up, with a concerned expression, "What?" she demanded slowly. Sighing, Harry collapsed back into the chair, setting a silencing charm up around them just in case. As he leaned back he began to explain the vision-like dream he'd had about Voldemort, Wormtail, and the innocent muggle who'd been killed.

Hermione's expression went from concerned to worry in an instant. "So, this could be a plot by Voldemort, is that what you're saying?"

"It's too convenient," he pointed out, dragging a hand across his face. "And this is me we're talking about. What's the likelihood this is just a coincidence, Hermione?" Harry asked expectantly.

"Oh, Harry, you just can't catch a break," Hermione exhaled sadly, "Look, right now, we focus on the First Task, and then we can deal with You-Know-Who. For now, go find those books I wanted."

Biting back a sigh, knowing that complaining wouldn't make the Tournament go away, Harry stood and followed Hermione's orders. He may not be a fan of Hermione's intense studying habits, but right now his own ones wouldn't cut it, and since he wanted to survive this Tournament he knew that he'd just have to suck it up and get on with it. Besides, he's on board as long as he gets to play around some of these fire spells.

What kind of teenage boy wizard would he be if he didn't have a thing for fire?

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

The sound of giggling made Harry freeze. Feeling eyes burning into him as he stood with his hand outreached a book called 'A Guide to Bending the Earth'.

Cautiously glancing over to the source, he faltered at the sight of an empty aisle. The moment he glanced away, the giggling started up again, making his head whip around in time to see a shadow flick past the opening to the aisle.

Scowling as he tried to ignore what was obviously another Boy-Who-Lived groupie like Ron's little sister. Harry pulled the book on what he hoped was earth magic down from the shelf and barely managed to hold in a yelp at the face that appeared in the gap. Breathing heavily, Harry lowered his wand, his hand shaking from adrenaline as he watched the Makhai beam at him happily and giggle again.

 _"Harry!"_ a breath whispered in his ear, making him twitch as he cautiously looked over his shoulder at the bookcase he had fallen against. _"Follow,"_ the Makhai exhaled before pulling itself out of the bookshelf, the half-visible spirit floating down the aisle.

Pausing for a moment as he calmed his heartbeat down, Harry finally started after the Makhai, wondering if he could bring it – her – back to Hermione as proof of Eris' existence. Somehow, he doubted it though. He couldn't help but think that only a Demigod could see the Makhai, like how only a Wizard can see most ghosts. But maybe Hermione could feel something? Lately, that weird humming sensation behind his eyes wouldn't let off.

Carefully following the Makhai, and trying to look casual as he walked past a group of glaring Hufflepuffs (Hufflepuffs who couldn't see the half-naked woman with hulking black-green wings sprouting from her back), Harry was led into the Restricted Section and down into its depths. _"Harry! Harry!"_ the Makhai chirped happily as she stopped and hovered at the end of an aisle at the edge of his wand-light. _"Come!"_ she added with a crooked grin before diving down the aisle, Harry noticing that while they have wings they didn't seem to use them, instead just floating above the ground as if under the effects of a levitation charm.

Remembering what Eris had told him about them being children, Harry continued carefully, moving down the aisles until he found the one the Makhai had gone down. Only to find an empty aisle. Frowning in confusion, Harry's grip tightened on his wand and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously, flicking his wand and sending the ball of light on the tip of his wand down the aisle. Casting the Lumos charm with a lazy flick of his wand, Harry set up a couple more balls of light up and down the aisle so he could see, knowing that if he needed to defend himself against an overenthusiastic Makhai, he'd need a free wand to do so.

Suddenly a crack echoed down the aisle, Harry's wand snapping up as he watched the Makhai's head poking out from the end of the aisle with a confused expression. _"Come Harry!"_ she chirped, vanishing again and making him sigh as he started down the hallway, refusing to feel embarrassed about his paranoia as Professor Moody's cry of 'CONSTANT VIGILANCE!' flashed through his mind.

Rounding the corner, Harry jumped back as he instinctively sent the ball of light at the person standing opposite him, throwing another at the ceiling above his head before pointing his wand at the dark person standing there.

 _"Harry?"_ the Makhai asked slowly as he stared at his reflection in the large mirror, his cheeks heating up in humiliation as he thanked Merlin that nobody saw that. Movement in the mirror made him spin around, eyeing the empty aisle behind him before glancing back at the mirror and freezing as he watched fog slowly appear on the mirror like it had the previous night.

Tensing in preparation to turn and run, hoping it would stop Eris from kidnapping him again, Harry watched as an invisible finger slowly drew some words on the surface of the mirror. The Latin 'Audi me Discordia, Dea aeterna' glowing for a split second before shifting into 'Hear me Discord, eternal Goddess'.

"Hear me Discord, eternal Goddess," Harry repeated out loud, wondering if it were some kind of incantation. "No?" he mumbled, glancing over at the Makhai that was curiously reading the titles of some of the books (And admittedly wondering if she could even read). "Uh," he began, concentrating on the almost ghostlike Latin words he could barely see beneath the English ones. "Audi me Dic - Audi me Discordia. Dea aeterna!" he called out, watching as a red smoke swirled into existence inside the mirror.

"Finally!" Eris' voice exclaimed, sounding a little deeper than he remembered it. Slowly the red smoke spread out and formed a ring while Eris' face appeared in the middle. "Hello again Hadr- Harry," she greeted slowly. "This isn't as graceful a meeting as I hoped," she admitted, "But it will suffice. Now, be still," she ordered as the Makhai appeared in front of Harry, red eyes beginning to glow as she circled him. The Goddess hummed thoughtfully as Harry stood there dumbly, the Makhai letting out a string of chirps and whistles that Harry's mind recognised as speech even if he didn't know the language.

"Hmm... your core is developing well," Eris praised slowly, a note of relief in her voice, "Good, that had worried me. And I'm picking up a seed of your father's essence, not enough to be able to place it, but at least it is there. Most Twice-Blessed only develop one of their parent's cores, but thankfully it seems you're developing both."

"Wouldn't that make me a God though?" Harry asked curiously, "You know, being the son of two Gods?"

"You lack the spark of immortality," Eris denied simply, with a scowl and a flash in her eyes. "And you were born to a mortal vessel. So no, you're not a God, merely a… merely a half-blood squared. Two human parents and two godly ones," she clarified. They stood there staring at each other for a moment longer before Eris sighed, "Harry..." she exhaled softly, "There is one thing I want you to promise me. Do not follow in my footsteps. I am the darkest of all my mother's children. I cause wars that bring Mortals to their knees because it is my nature. Your nature however, is your own," she continued, "As is your path. Do not follow me or your father, forge your own way."

As Harry stared at Eris in shock and confusion, the Goddess blinked slowly before smirking. "And my sisters said I wasn't a maternal being," she muttered to herself proudly.

Clearing his throat awkwardly to attract the Goddess' attention, Harry shifted slowly on his feet. "It's not that I don't believe you" he began nervously, "Because uh, Neville and Seamus are kinda proof that this is all real".

"It's just that you don't _want_ to believe me," Eris interrupted with a knowing look. "Go to Gringotts. Goblins are descended from the spawn of Ares and his twin sister Enyo, so they are part of the divine world as well as the magical one. They'll be able to perform a ritual to identify whether or not you have divine heritage," she instructed, "And from what I understand, only a Demigod would be able to enter the heart of Hogwarts, the place where your little friends meet."

"But how am I supposed to get to Gringotts?" Harry asked helplessly. "I mean students aren't allowed to leave the castle during the year without permission from their Head of-" he cut himself suddenly, realising what he was about to say. "Without permission from their Head of House," he finished smugly, remembering McGonagall's offer of aid.

"I'll leave the thinking to you," Eris decided smugly, "If you're anything like myself and your mortal father then you be cunning enough to figure things out. Send Hedwig to me when you want to talk, I think you'll find she's more than capable of making the journey to and from Tartarus without coming to harm."

Before Harry had time to ask what she meant, Eris was gone and he was staring at his own face in the mirror, an upside down Makhai floating behind him. Letting out a long breath, Harry turned to face the Makhai that was watching him with wide eyes, "I don't suppose you can help me get to Gringotts, can you?" he asked slowly. When the Makhai just blinked at him dumbly, he nodded. "Yeah I figured not," he muttered as she got distracted and hovered past him to pull faces into the mirror.

Watching the Makhai at 'work', Harry allowed himself a soft chuckle at some of the faces an apparently spineless spirit could pull, a flicker of shame rushing through him as he realised that unlike Eris and his 'mortal father' he was about as cunning as Draco Malfoy.

But then again… the Sorting Hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin, the house of the cunning. Maybe he just needed to practice? If he stopped slacking off all the time, started trying to do his best. Then maybe he could be intelligent, and cunning…

Nodding to himself, Harry pushed away from the wall he found himself leaning against and started walking back towards the library. If he needed to be smart, then there was only one person he could go ask for help.

Hermione.

"- spell just isn't worth it. The drain on your magic doesn't justify the outcome, it is much better to just go with the defluxio charm and overpower it instead. Much more reliable, accurate, and explosive."

Coming to a stop in the aisles, Harry's eyebrows rose as he listened to Professor McGonagall's voice talking. Slowly peering around the corner, Harry saw the Professor and Hermione leaning over the large list of spells that he and Hermione had been making. Stepping out of the aisles and waiting until Hermione noticed him, Harry was shocked when she just gestured him back behind the shelves and winked at him, brushing her finger across her lip in the universal 'Be quiet' gesture.

"In fact, I wouldn't bother with most of these spells, lightning magic is both dangerous and unreliable," Professor McGonagall continued, "Most spells create actual lightning which, as a Muggleborn, I'm sure you know is just a large electrical discharge. This means that lightning spells usually tend to strike the nearest object that the discharge can reach, usually the caster themselves. The defluxio spell is one of the only lightning spells I've seen that actually hits what you aim at".

"I guess that makes sense. So unless the spell specifies a directional discharge then it's best to leave it alone?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Indeed, and even then it's best not to try the spell without a Mediwitch nearby. Now, I have my First Years in thirty minutes, so if you would be so kind as to go locate Mr Potter then we can continue," Professor McGonagall requested.

As Hermione's chair pushed out Harry decided to just step out himself, rounding the corner and feigning surprise at the sight of his Head of House. "Oh! Professor McGonagall, I didn't know you were there," he greeted.

The look McGonagall sent him clearly said 'Don't push it', making him duck his head awkwardly as the Professor stood up. "Filius was glad to help me dust out the old duelling chambers," she explained to them both as Hermione packed up their notes and books. "They are heavily warded to prevent spell damage, and include a passageway to the hallway outside the Hospital Wing," she continued, "I will teach you the passphrase to activate the shields and leave you to test things out on your own. Ah Irma! Miss Granger will return later to give you a list of the books she has on her, I'm afraid I don't have the time to allow her to go through the process of issuing them out."

Harry couldn't stop himself from frowning in confusion, glancing over at an equally confused looking Hermione. The 'process' of issuing a book out was as simple as handing it to Madam Pince, who tapped the book with her wand and then tapped a sheet of parchment. And they had more books than they were even allowed to issue out, so why would McGonagall- he froze and exchanged another look with Hermione, both of them realising what the Professor was doing around the same time.

"Of course Minerva," Madam Pince agreed slowly, Harry faltering slowly as he realised the librarian was staring at him intently, a faint buzzing audible behind his eyes, "Miss Granger practically lives here, I'm sure I don't need to remind her to take good care of them."

Following the silent Professor, Harry wondered why she was suddenly acting a lot colder yet sneakier around him. There was no rule preventing the Champions from receiving help from the staff was there? It wouldn't surprise him if there was, how better to screw with him than to stop him from getting some help to lessen the three year age gap between him and the other three Champions?

The long journey between the Library and the Hospital Wing was thankfully made shorter as Hermione and the Professor discussed 'Transfiguration verses Conjuration', most of what they were saying going straight over Harry's head. Thankfully he had something of his own to think about for the journey, like how Eris had seemed too confident about what he'd find at Gringotts for someone who was lying. And the way Neville and Seamus were acting meant that it was likely the Goddess could actually be telling the truth.

And if it were true? Well Harry wasn't so sure he wanted to be a Demigod…

"Welcome to the Duelling Chamber," McGonagall announced as they passed the Hospital Wing and moved two floors above it to a large circular room that had a raised dais in the middle. "Hogwarts used to have a NEWT level Duelling Class," she explained as she led them over to the other side of the room where a large gleaming diamond was set into the wall, a list of incantations and their uses written beside it.

"And the shield? It can withstand anything?" Hermione asked curiously, studying the list of controls while Harry climbed the steps to the dais.

"Outside of professional curse-breaking spells and some major dark curses, yes," McGonagall confirmed, "I have seen this shield withstand one of the Headmaster's blasting curses when he cast it at full power. I think it will be able to handle whatever you two throw at it. I have also arranged for one of the House Elves to bring over a portrait for the Chamber door, you'll be able to set a password for it and work without distractions.

"That door over there is a one-way passage to the Hospital Wing in case either of you gets injured, which I hope I don't have to ask you to avoid doing," she added dryly as she started towards the door, "I have class now, if there is anything you two need then please do not hesitate to ask."

"Thank you Professor," Harry blurted making her pause, "Just thank you."

"You will always have help from me Harry," McGonagall said softly, not turning around to look at him. "I refuse to let you down again, and since Albus is insisting we let you achieve this on your own, I find myself even more motivated to help."

Harry stood there long after she left, staring at the door, his mind repeating her words over and over again. "Harry?" a tentative voice broke through the anger that felt like it was flooding his mind. "It's alright," Hermione whispered as she awkwardly hugged him from behind, "It's going to be alright."

"I need to get to Gringotts," Harry decided suddenly, "I saw Her again in the Library, and I need to get to Gringotts," he explained simply, when Hermione looked at him oddly.

The idea of being a demigod was surreal to Harry, even though he was surrounded by magic on a daily basis. Even if he didn't entertain the idea much, a small part of him, on a subconscious level, felt a connection with Eris. One that only a son would feel for his mother.

One thing he knew for sure though, was that once he mastered his powers, he would finally put to rest the demon that was Voldemort, once and for all.


	4. Chapter 4

Pulling his hood further down over his face, Harry strode through Diagon Alley, part of him certain that someone would just glance at him and instantly know who he was.

Walking past a stall selling the Daily Prophet, Harry couldn't help but flinch at the accusations and insults being thrown around by the readers. Digging his nails into his palms, Harry ignored the witches and wizards calling him an arrogant cheat and focused on following the plan.

The Goblin standing guard outside Gringotts didn't look twice at Harry as he climbed the stairs, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to rise eerily. He felt that, despite their apparent disinterest, they were still watching him intently. Entering the almost empty bank, Harry made a beeline towards the nearest open teller, approaching a bearded Goblin, who stood weighing some pea sized rubies.

Standing there patiently, Harry watched quietly as the Goblin finished weighing the rubies and marked down the results in what Harry assumed was Gobbledegook. When the Goblin finally looked up at him, Harry could have sworn he saw a flicker of approval in his eyes before he inclined his head with an emotionless "How can Gringotts help you today?"

"I uh, I need to take an inheritance test," Harry explained quietly, leaning forward so the Goblin could hear him easily.

The Goblin's expression didn't change as it nodded again and leaned back in its seat. "And do you have the ten galleons required for the service?" he asked simply, causing Harry to flinch at his loud voice.

"Yeah, in my vault," Harry quickly confirmed.

"Key," the Goblin ordered, sticking its hand out and making Harry scramble to pull his small golden key from his pocket. The Goblin took one look at the key and his eyes widened marginally, gently taking it from Harry's hand and placing it into a small box on the side of the desk.

Harry watched as unfamiliar runes on the box glowed, the words 'Hadrian James Salvator Potter' appearing above the box in the same light blue glow as the runes. As Harry stared at what was apparently his full name in shock, the Goblin reached out to ring a bell loudly, another Goblin appearing out of nowhere to stand beside the desk expectantly.

"Take Heir Potter to Master Blacksteel immediately," the Teller Goblin ordered slowly, the new Goblin bowing low to the floor as the Teller handed Harry back his key.

"Heir Potter?" a female's voice echoed, making Harry flinch and turn to see a blonde woman in a black dress-suit standing at the next teller's station. "Oh Harry!" the unfamiliar woman exclaimed as she squinted through the hood to see his face, "Just the young man I've been dying to meet!"

"Heir Potter, if you'll follow me?" the new Goblin asked, ignoring the woman entirely.

"I won't keep you Harry," the woman said quickly, "I'm Rita Skeeter, and I'm the reporter the Ministry has assigned to the Triwizard Tournament. Could I have a few words with you after you're done with the kind Goblin?" she asked overly sweetly, her tone of voice dripping with metaphorical sugar.

Harry's first instinct was to turn the woman down, but then the conversations he overheard about the Daily Prophet came to mind and his Slytherin side made its first long overdue appearance. As much as he hated it, nobody else was going to help him, so if he had to 'suck it up' to help himself, then so be it. "Does Gringotts offer private rooms?" he asked instead, turning to the Teller Goblin slowly.

"Ten galleons an hour, fifteen includes food and drink," the Goblin replied simply.

"Then how about we meet later on in the week, say on Saturday?" Harry decided, turing to back to Rita Skeeter, "I'm afraid I'll be held up at Hogwarts until then". Saturday would give him time to plan with Hermione, so he'd know what to and what not to say. As Rita's eyes practically started glowing, Harry fought back the nervousness that rose up in his chest, reminding himself that it was for the 'Greater Good'.

"Excellent," Rita purred out, "I'll look forward to your owl then Mr Potter."

Forcing a smile onto his face in return, Harry failed to hide his shudder as Rita turned away and power walked from the bank. "You are a brave Wizard," the Goblin muttered as Harry began to follow him, "Many a person has fallen to her quill's venomous bite".

"That's what I'm counting on," Harry muttered remembering her articles after the Quidditch World Cup. The Goblin sent him an appraising look as they headed down a declining marble hallway.

After many twists and turns, too for Harry to count, his guide ordered him to wait outside an extravagant steel door before knocking and entering. He stood there awkwardly, his fingers twitching to pull his invisibility cloak out of his pocket and hide beneath.

A scuffing noise drew his attention down the hallway, where a Goblin was walking towards him with his nose stuck in a folder. The Goblin, as if he felt Harry's eyes on him, glanced up and froze at the sight of him. As the Goblin's eyes flicked up to his forehead, Harry instinctively raised his hand to smooth down his fringe, the widening of the Goblin's eyes implying he was too late.

He jumped as the door to his left opened suddenly, a tall black-clad Goblin stepping out of the office with his eyes locked on Harry's face. Glancing one last time at the shocked Goblin, Harry turned his attention on who he was assuming to be 'Master Blacksteel', only to see him sending the other Goblin a dark look.

"Come in Heir Potter, I have been waiting for you," Blacksteel ordered darkly, making Harry scramble to follow the Goblin into the office. "I must say Heir Potter, that I was expecting to see you in my office three months ago," Blacksteel continued as he circled the desk to sit down, "When Gringotts says 'as soon as possible', we mean 'now'."

"I'm sorry?" Harry asked uncertainly, not having any idea about what the Goblin was talking about.

"I'm sure you are Heir Potter," Blacksteel agreed sarcastically.

"No. I mean I don't understand," Harry interrupted as Blacksteel opened his mouth to speak again. "You make it sound like I had an appointment. To my knowledge I didn't," he explained, trying to sound polite and formal as to not annoy the Goblin.

"A letter was sent to your place of residence in Manchester on the 31st of July," Blacksteel snapped imperiously. "Gringotts is not responsible for-"

"Wait. Manchester?" Harry blurted, cutting off the Goblin who scowled at him in response. "To the extent of my knowledge, I've never lived in Manchester," he said slowly, hating how he didn't sound like himself. "I lived with my parents in Godric's Hollow, until they were killed, and then I stayed with my Muggle relatives in Surrey."

The Goblin shot him an annoyed look and opened the deep blue folder on his desk, scanning over the first page before clearing his throat. "Place of Residence; Percival Manor," he read out loud, "And your guardians are listed as 'Alexander Wulfric Percival and Diana Megan Percival née Johnson'."

"I have no idea who either of them are," Harry admitted slowly, the names causing a memory to stir in the back of his mind, "I live with my mother's Muggle sister, Petunia Dursley, uh née Evans. I live with her and her family, Vernon, and Dudley Dursley, in Surrey."

Blacksteel stared at him, as if he was trying to see through to his soul, not moving a muscle or even blinking as he sat there. "Then I take it that all our previous correspondence has not been with you?" he asked finally, "What of your magical guardian?"

"My magical what?" Harry asked dumbly, feeling like a fish out of water as the Goblin just exhaled slowly.

"This will take more time than we have presently," Blacksteel decided, sounding resigned and looking a lot older than he had before, "We will do as much as we can today, and then you will have to return for Gringotts at a later date. Now Pickfist said you requested an inheritance test? May I ask what you are looking to find?"

"I've uh, recently been informed that my parentage may not be what I believed it to be," Harry answered vaguely, not sure if he could just come out and say it.

"A paternity test then?" Blacksteel suggested.

"Sort of, but it'd need to be a private one. From what I understand this could cause problem if it went public," Harry explained, anger flashing through Blacksteel's eyes at Harry's implication. "Like Mount Olympus sized problems" he added quickly, watching as the Goblin froze and the anger was replaced with realization.

"If I might make a suggestion Heir Potter," Blacksteel murmured slowly, "Do not go into a career in politics. Subtlety is not your strongest trait."

As Harry blushed, Blacksteel stood and moved over to a small door in the wall, looking rather like a microwave door as the Goblin hit a series of glowing button-runes and the door popped open. Reaching inside, the Goblin pulled out a piece of golden parchment and a long black quill, which he carried over to the desk to place in front of him.

"Write your Family Name down in the middle of the parchment," Blacksteel instructed as Harry slowly picked up the quill.

"My Family Name?" Harry echoed, "About that. I thought my name was 'Harry James Potter', but before when I was at the front desk the box said it was something different."

"Harry James Potter is your Public Name," Blacksteel explained, "Your Family Name is the name you were given in front of Magic during your Naming Ceremony. You will use your Family Name for this, no magical contract will be official unless signed with your Family Name."

Harry froze, dread filling him as he slowly raised his head to stare at the Goblin. "So if someone were to enter my name into a magical goblet as 'Harry Potter', then it wouldn't be official? I wouldn't have been entered into the Tournament?" he blurted.

"If someone were to enter your Family Name into the Goblet of Fire then it still wouldn't have been official," Blacksteel corrected, "Only you, or your magical guardian with your permission, can enter you into magical contracts."

"Who's my magical guardian?" Harry asked softly, feeling like he already knew the answer to his question.

"Albus Dumbledore," Blacksteel confirmed, making Harry's eyes drift close as he waited for the expected anger to come.

Instead of anger though, Harry just felt numb. "So if Dumbledore entered my name into the Goblet, then what counts as my permission? Because I never gave him permission to enter my name," he questioned softly.

"Either verbal permission to enter you, or a magical declaration that you would abide by the contract," Blacksteel clarified.

"I said I wouldn't. When my name was pulled, I said 'I didn't enter my name and I refuse to compete'," Harry exhaled, "Does that mean I'm not bound by the contract?"

Blacksteel let out a humming noise, opening up Harry's file and beginning to shuffle through it to what looked like a Muggle tab. "Gringotts has received the Goblet of Fire's contract," the Goblin admitted slowly, making Harry's heart fall, "However neither you nor your magical guardian has signed it. It is likely the Goblet was charmed into believing that the signature was yours, being a more archaic contract it's not bound by the more modern protections against fraud," he explained.

Harry let out a stuttered exhale, leaning back in the hard wooden chair and staring up at the roof. "I have to compete then. I can't just walk away," he murmured, brushing aside the guilt of his accusing Dumbledore in favour of the fear that rose in his chest.

"Unfortunately, yes, so it would seem," Blacksteel agreed bluntly, not sounding at all sympathetic. "And on the topic on contracts, I would suggest arranging for your Family solicitor to write one up regarding your business with Rita Skeeter, she will not hesitate to destroy you for the highest bidder unless tempered by an iron-clad contract."

"My Family solicitor?" Harry echoed slowly, wondering why he hadn't heard of them before today.

"I will owl you their details," Blacksteel said simply, "The sooner we can begin the audit of your account the better."

Grimacing at the idea of paperwork, Harry leaned forward and wrote in the nicest handwriting that he could 'Hadrian James Salvator Potter', the name he remembered being written on the box out in the atrium. Frowning as he realised nothing had been written, Harry moved to write down his name again, only for a startled hiss to escape his lips as pain shot across the back of his hand.

Slowly, and in the same handwriting as he had written it, his 'Family Name' was carved into the back of his hand while it wrote itself on the parchment in red glistening ink. Unable to tear his eyes away, Harry watched with morbid fascination as the gold faded from the parchment, leaving the background white as the remaining gold formed words and symbols splayed across the page.

Squinting at the words in front of him, Harry watched as what looked like a mixture of two different languages blurred in front of his eyes, the letters glowing slightly as they shifted into English.

 **Father -** Jameson Charlus Dorian Potter / **Progenitor -** Undetermined

 **Mother -** Lillian Potter née Evans née Eris / **Progenitor -** Eris

'Well, that answers that,' he thought.

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"Harry!"

Harry didn't reply as he pushed past Hermione, heading straight upstairs and into his dorm, collapsing onto his bed after only a quick glance to make sure it was empty.

"Harry James Potter!" Hermione scolded, as she stalked into the room after him, "You promised you'd be back by four! It's almost six Harry, I had to bribe Madam Pomfrey to make her claim that you were in a private room."

"Are we alone?" Harry asked instead, ignoring the question in her voice as he sat up and moved back to lean against his headboard, pulling his pillow to his chest and holding it tightly.

Hermione faltered for a moment, clearly not expecting his response, before launching into action and quickly scanning the room and the bathroom before sending a barrage of spells at the door to the staircase. "Yes," she finally declared, "And we're locked in, silenced, and warded. Harry looked at her, astonished by how thorough she was. "I had a lot of time to read that 'Charms for the Subtle Wizard' book while you were gone," she explained sheepishly, seeing his expression.

"She was telling the truth," Harry admitted bluntly as he pulled the test results from his pocket to throw them onto the bed, "And I'm what their world calls a 'Twice-Blessed', a mortal child of two Gods, which means I can't be normal even in a world with Gods in it."

Hermione didn't reply straight away, walking over to climb onto the bed and sit beside him as she read the results. "Hadrian James Salvator Potter?" she questioned curiously.

"My 'Family Name'. Harry James is kind of like my Christian name for magicals," Harry explained absently.

Humming in understanding, Hermione continued to read the test results. "I don't understand" she murmured, "This… this shouldn't be possible. I thought the Gods didn't exist, yet apparently they do."

"And I'm one of them," Harry agreed numbly, "Or at least, I'm part-God."

"I was talking to Neville about Demigods and the Olympians while you were gone," Hermione admitted slowly, "He explained everything he could. It just doesn't seem real, even though the proof is staring me in the eyes."

"The proof is in my DNA and I still don't believe it," Harry countered, raising a hand to drag it through his hair. "You should have heard the Goblins. One minute they were cold and impartial -" ("Like always," Hermione muttered) " - and then the moment the results came back with 'Eris' and 'Undetermined' they were falling over themselves to help me, however they could. I can hire a private room with their finest human refreshments for free because they wouldn't have an 'esteemed Twice-Blessed' paying for anything," he exclaimed in frustration.

"As my mother would say, Harry, 'Grow up'," Hermione deadpanned, making him stare at her in shock. "You're a Demigod. You don't like it, I understand," she continued, "But you couldn't change that any more than I could change my buck-teeth or my frizzy hair. It sounds harsh I know, but that's what my parents always say. I can't change what I see in the mirror, but I can always make them proud of who I am."

"Really?" Harry deadpanned, staring at his best friend in half-amusement and half-hurt, "That came out of nowhere."

"You know how I feel about my looks Harry," Hermione defended weakly, blushing, "I want to change them but I can't. And that's that, I move onto more important things. More important things, like how we're meeting Neville and the others after dinner tonight. And why do you have a vortex manipulator on your wrist?" she blurted in confusion.

"Huh? Oh them," Harry mumbled awkwardly as Hermione pulled back his sleeve to stare at the black leather wristband he was wearing, making him pull up his other sleeve to reveal a second one. "They were in a special vault at Gringotts. Blacksteel said the vault was in my name, a gift from Eris. I picked them up, and they sort of…well, puffed into smoke before wrapping around my wrist."

When Hermione glared at him, Harry raised his arms in defence. "I know! I screwed up," he confessed as Hermione sighed slowly. "What did you call them?" he asked curiously, glancing back down as Hermione studied them intently.

"Nothing," the blushing Witch dismissed with a wave of her hand. "What did the Goblins say they are? Did they even come with an instruction manual? Wait, forget that last part," she muttered, adding something under her breath about the stupidity of Wizards.

"The Goblins said they were a 'Blessed Artefact', and, uh, something imbued with power by the Gods," Harry explained with a shrug. "They had no idea what they were though, Blacksteel refused to even touch them. Oh, Blacksteel runs the Potter accounts," he clarified, "And guess who committed fraud?"

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, fear flashing across her face. "It was simple! Go to Gringotts and get the blood test!"

"Not me!" Harry interrupted quickly, making Hermione freeze guiltily. "Dumbledore registered with the Goblins that I live with his son and daughter-in-law. They've been receiving all my Gringotts mail for years."

"Dumbledore has a son?" Hermione asked dumbly before shaking her head, "Are sure Harry? Because that's a serious accusation to make. You'd need to have some really good proof for anything like that to stick."

"I have Dumbledore's signature on the form," Harry countered, "And Dumbledore's magical signature is on all the responses Gringotts have received from 'me'."

Hermione stared at him for a moment, clearly lost in thought, something about her expression making Harry uncomfortable. "It's not actually that bad," he mumbled, "He just lied about where I lived. It's not like he was stealing for me or anything, he actually made some really good investments apparently," he explained awkwardly.

"Then why would he put your name into the Goblet?" Hermione asked, frustration filling her voice.

"He didn't," Harry denied, "According to the Goblins if he had put my name, then the contract the Goblins had would have his signature, magical or otherwise on it. But since the contract had someone else's on it and I refused to compete, it's supposed to mean that the 'binding contract' is invalid."

"So you don't have to compete then?" Hermione realised, relief flooding her face.

"Yeah about that," Harry began cautiously.

As Hermione's eyes narrowed at him, he smiled nervously back at her. "The Goblet uses a contract system before the new protections were put in place," he explained, "Which means that if the Goblet was enchanted, then the signature would be accepted whether it was valid or not".

"You have to compete," Hermione exhaled, staring at him with a mixture of pity, loss, and anger, "So, this must be You-Kno…You know what, I'm calling him Voldemort, anyway, it's because of Him, you're involved?"

"I suppose so, but it gets worse," Harry confessed, making his brunette best friend freeze and look at him like the world was falling down around them. "I got ambushed by the reporter for the Tournament," he admitted hesitantly, "And I agreed to give her an interview."

"Harry," Hermione said warningly, looking irate, "You didn't."

"I can't pull out of the Tournament Hermione," Harry interrupted quickly, "Not only is the contract binding, It's been formally announced to the public already. All I can do, is agree to compete, and have a reporter in my pocket with promises of exclusive interviews. I'm getting in contact with the Potter lawyer so I can get a contract written up, and everything."

"I'm not talking to you," Hermione declared as she stood up and climbed off his bed, "This is the most idiotic thing you've ever done!" she shouted angrily, "People have died in this Tournament Harry! This isn't a popularity contest, this is a life or death situation. And you chose death!"

"Actually Hermione. I'm a fourteen year old boy," Harry corrected as he stood up as well, standing opposite her with his arms crossed, "I don't have the other's experience, or their power. All I have are my instincts and you. I need every advantage I can get, and as much as I hate my fame, you can't deny that using it might keep me alive."

"You let the reporter talk you into it didn't you?" Hermione asked simply.

"Actually it was my idea," Harry admitted quickly, "But that's not the point. The point is this-"

"No!" Hermione interrupted, "I don't want to hear it."

She drew her wand and flicked it at the door. "I don't want to hear it," she repeated softly, shaking her head at him as she turned and stalked straight out the door, slamming it behind her.

Harry, for his part, watched as another one of his best friends left him, and collapsed on to his bed.

"Why is it always me?" he moaned to the ceiling.


	5. Chapter 5

"Harry?"

Jumping slightly, Harry turned away from his thoughts and glanced up at Neville, the timid boy sitting opposite him.

"Is…is Hermione coming tonight?" Neville asked uncertainly, peering up and down the Gryffindor table, even as Harry flinched.

"I don't know mate," he mumbled in response, "She's kinda not talking to me right now."

Neville faltered for a moment, looking utterly flabbergasted as his mouth just fell open. "I didn't even know she could do that," he blurted, "I thought you two were like attached at the hip or something."

As Neville instantly started blushing and mumbling out an apology, Harry waved it off and continued picking at his food. "So uh, when do you do wanna start that essay?" he asked quietly as he noticed that the students on either side weren't be subtle about eavesdropping on them.

Neville only looked confused for a couple of seconds, catching on quickly and nodding at him. "Shay and I were thinking we could start now actually," the brunette admitted slowly, "Since everyone's eating, we thought the essay would be easiest to do when no one was around. You know what divination's like."

Grimacing automatically just at the mention of his least favourite class, Harry nodded and pushed his plate away, wiping his hands with a napkin. "Do you think I should go try find Hermione first?" he asked Neville as the son of Demeter led him towards where Seamus was waiting by the door.

"I dunno," Neville mumbled awkwardly, "I mean she can't follow us. The, uh, the Temple can only be accessed by people...people like us, you see."

"I thought you said you had no problem with Hermione knowing?" Harry asked slowly, narrowing his eyes at the normally shy boy.

"We don't," Seamus assured him quickly as they reached him and started from the Great Hall. "I just figured ya meant later, your first meeting's got to be in the Temple you see? It's after that we can meet up with Hermione, although Nev and I ain't the best to answer her questions."

"Who can then? Because she won't let us sleep until she knows everything," Harry pointed out, already foreseeing a sleepless night ahead of him.

"Can't we just promise her an expert tomorrow?" Seamus groaned, "Blondie knows everything, so she can put up with Hermione in the morning."

"It may work," Harry said slowly, not at all believing it would work as a more devious plan came to mind. He could always silence his own bed, and then set Hermione on Neville and Seamus, they knew more than he did after all. "Who's meeting us there?" he asked, distracting himself from plotting his dorm-mates impending demise.

"You'll see," Neville replied vaguely, smiling apologetically at him, hand coming up to comb through his hair.

Following Neville's subtle gesture, Harry casually glanced over to where a sleeping portrait of a fat man gave a particularly loud snore, the act not fooling Harry for an instant. "I guess I will," he mumbled, wondering if Neville was implying that the portraits were merely gossipers or that they were actively spying on them.

He felt so on the edge, like someone was going to point at him suddenly, and start screaming accusations about him being a Demigod. He had gathered from the way Seamus and Neville had acted last night that he needed to be quiet about it, but he didn't even know the consequences if he did, what if he was toeing the line to Azkaban? Unless one of his 'godly powers' was the ability to unlock doors, then he would be stuck in the prison, and that's not including how he'd need to be able to breathe underwater to get off the island, since he couldn't swim.

And yet somehow, despite how dangerous it could be for him to be doing this, he couldn't help but get a tiny thrill at breaking the rules.

He blamed his mother.

"It's in the Tower?" he asked in disbelief as they finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Neville giving the password so they could all clamber in. If anything he never thought that the 'Temple' would be somewhere so crowded, instead of somewhere like in an abandoned dead-end corridor.

"The Gryffindor one is," the boy admitted, glancing around the room slowly before raising a hand. " _Incantare signum vitae_ ," he called out, Harry's jaw almost dropping as he watched the almost tangible wave of purplish light exploding out from Neville's glowing hand.

"What was that?" Harry blurted when Neville nodded and lowered his hand.

"Magic," Seamus answered, sounding amused as he started towards the fireplace, Harry just catching the grin on his face as the boy hurried away.

"Sorcery, Harry," Neville clarified, "Its true magic. When Lady Hecate first blessed Demigods with Magic, they used something called sorcery instead, then as their divine blood became watered down through generations, so did their magic. Any Demigod blessed by Hecate can use sorcery, we start training when our godly cores are fully developed."

"Enough about that though," Seamus interrupted, making Harry turn and get a small heart-attack at the sight of the Irish boy sitting in the fireplace. "If we open the door, then the other doors lock," the boy explained, "It's to stop others from stumbling across us when we're entering or leaving the Temple."

"Harry?"

"Like that," Seamus dead-panned as he threw himself out of the fire and pretended to sit in front of it instead.

Spinning around, Harry watched as Hermione almost fell over on her way into the common room. "Harry! Good. I thought I'd missed you," the bushy haired brunette exclaimed, reaching into the bag on her hip to pull out what looked like a book's worth of parchment.

"I've done all the research in the time that I had," she declared, rushing over to shove the parchment into his hands, "It's everything I thought important about giving interviews and public speaking. If you had let me know before you gave the interview, then we could have practised how it was going to go before hand. There's no point in crying over spilt milk though, so instead I looked up everything the library had on slander and defamation laws, just in case they screw you over of course."

"You're talking to me now are you?" Harry asked, unable to keep a hint of bitterness from his voice as he stared at the ruffled girl.

His answer came in the form of a slap around the back of the head. "Don't you dare take this out on me, Harry Potter," Hermione growled dangerously, pointing her finger at his face warningly. "You are the one who was so stupid as to walk into an interview unprepared. Unlike you I actually tend to read the Daily Prophet, I know how the Ministry reports the 'truth'. So forgive me if I was a little brassed off with you, Harry!"

"I didn't give the interview. It's on Saturday," he corrected, making Hermione blink at him in shock. "But uh, I forgive you?" Harry added dumbly, horror filling him seconds after the words fell from his mother, a metaphorical fire lighting in Hermione's eyes.

As Hermione's eyes narrowed and she took a deep breath, Harry felt like bursting into tears of relief as she looked past him and frowned at something. "How long has that been there?" she asked instead, her eyes widening even further, "Is that where we're meeting the others?" she asked hopefully.

"Yup," Seamus answered happily, grinning at them both as Harry turned around to find that the fire had gone out, and what looked like steps had descended from the floor to reveal a stone wall with a filled-in door frame behind the fireplace. "Watch," he instructed, reaching up into the chimney of the fireplace and pulling something, stepping away as the grate slid back up into place and the steps down jolted back up to form the fire pit which ignited instantly.

"So anyone can reach it?" Hermione asked, looking a little disappointed as she stepped past Harry and moved over to the fireplace. "I'm assuming that a simple fire-freezing charm is all that's needed?" she added, glancing over at the nodding Seamus.

"Aye, that or being fireproof," the boy explained, shoving his hand straight into the fire without hesitation.

"But that's first year magic!" Hermione exclaimed as they both watched Seamus reaching up to pull the lever again, "It's not very secret if it's in the middle of the common room and is accessible through first year magic!"

"Normal Demigods start to realise their heritage around twelve, so it's almost guaranteed that they know how to get in," Neville offered as Seamus stepped up to the stone wall inside the door frame and stepped straight through it, vanishing with a wave over his shoulder. "And we only use this one if we know the Tower is secure, we use one of the other doors if we think we'll be caught".

"There are other doors?" Hermione demanded, moving forward quickly and beginning to study the runes on the door-frame.

"Of course," Seamus' voice echoed out from the wall beyond the door, "They're in the common rooms ain't they? There's also some others around Hogwarts, just thought you'd like to see this one didn't we Nev?"

"It's uh, closer to home I guess," Neville agreed as Harry watched Hermione hopefully. "And only Demigods can pass through the door, so we're safe either way," the boy added innocently. Harry's eyes widening as he stared at the stone wall that Hermione had just stepped through.

"Only Demigods?" Hermione's voice asked through the wall, "As in… only Demigods?"

"Only Demigods," Neville agreed, a smug look pulling as his lips as he stepped through the wall with a murmured apology.

"Ya coming Harry?" Seamus called as Harry stood there feeling lost and confused.

Stepping forward nervously, Harry paused in the doorway, clamping his eyes shut and stepping through the wall. Jumping slightly as he opened his eyes into a lit up corridor, Harry glanced back over his shoulder at the stone wall behind him, only the door frame and the Gryffindor Crest on the wall showing where it led.

"Is this?" he asked slowly, looking up and down the empty corridor, "This isn't part of the Tower, that's impossible".

"Trans-dimensional doors," Seamus corrected simply. "What? Demigods aren't as closed off as Wizards are; we actually get cable," he explained, getting defensive at Harry's surprised look.

"We're still in the castle," Neville explained, his voice sounding strangely confident as Harry glanced over to see a boy who was not the same timid boy he met on the Hogwarts Express. "We're just far beneath it," he continued as he stretched before heading down the corridor, step in step with a relaxed looking Seamus.

Exchanging a confused look with Hermione, Harry quickly hurried after the two boys. "Something's wrong, because I'm not a Demigod!" Hermione exclaimed, "Do the wards feed off the school's ambient magic or do they need to be recharged?"

"No freakin' clue," Seamus dismissed over his shoulder, "But they're not wrong Hermy".

"Don't call me that," came Hermione's knee-jerk response. "And I'm not a Demigod, I know both my parents!"

"And I know all three of mine," Seamus countered, Neville nodding in agreement beside him.

"But I can't be a Demigod, I've shown no signs," Hermione argued.

"Do you even know what the signs are?" Harry asked, the words slipping from his tongue before he could stop them.

"The troll found you easy enough in first year," Neville pointed out gently, "And Harry found the troll just as easily."

"I was looking for Hermione though," he argued quickly, making Neville snort at him, once more proving himself to be ten times less timid than the Neville they were used to.

"How many times had you been to the girls' bathroom on the first floor again Harry?" Seamus asked lazily, a bounce entering his step as he turned around so he was walking backwards.

Harry faltered at that, frowning slightly as he realised he wasn't actually sure how he had known which bathroom to get to, to save Hermione. "Okay," he began slowly, "So having no idea of self-preservation is a Demigod thing?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yup," Seamus agreed simply.

"No," Neville corrected with a pointed look at Seamus. "All Demigods have what I've heard Hermione calling your 'saving people thing'. We can train ourselves out of it, but the more noble our parent, the more likely we are to go take on a fully grown mountain troll on our own."

"Though demigods all have something known as a Fatal Flaw," Seamus explained, "I guess this 'saving people thing' is yours."

"I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that Eris isn't the Goddess of Nobility," Hermione pointed out slowly.

"Hey! That's my Mum you're talking about!" Harry defended, coming to a sudden halt as he realised what he had just said.

"Your subconscious accepts it, even if you can't," a dreamy voice called out to them, making Harry's head snap back up to where he could see something blonde vanishing through the wall ahead of them that looked like it was made of solid gold.

"Harry's a Demigod, we have proof of that," Hermione said desperately, "But I'm not, I have two loving parents. I'm not a Demigod, I can't be".

"Do you love your mortal parents?" Seamus asked as he came to a stop in front of the golden wall the voice had entered before.

"I love my _only_ parents," Hermione confirmed.

"Then what's the problem? Don't you have enough room in your heart for another parent?" Seamus asked slowly, falling backwards and through the wall.

"Seamus is right Hermione," Neville said softly, "If you love your mortal parents, then there's nothing wrong with having a godly parent as well, it's not like you're insulting them or something."

"I'm not a Demigod, Harry. I'm Christian, I can't be a Demigod," Hermione blurted desperately as she turned to face him.

"I feel a buzzing, behind my eyes," Harry said slowly, turning to face Hermione. "I feel it whenever I look at Seamus, or Neville, and even Madam Pince. I think it means they're Demigods, Hermione, because I feel it whenever I look at you too."

Hermione's face fell at that confession, so Harry tried to reassure her. "I don't think it matters that you're Christian, because the Dursleys used to tell me that if I stepped into a church I'd burst into flames," he explained, only half joking, "And if the Greek Gods can exist, then maybe so can yours. And if he hasn't done anything about a Demigod worshipping him, then I don't really think he cares that you do."

He wasn't sure exactly sure what to say but trusted in what Hermione always called his ungodly luck, and if he was beginning to think that there was nothing 'ungodly' about this luck, but quite the opposite instead, then it was a perfectly logical explanation.

"Look, Hermione, whether or not you believe it, you're a demigod," Neville said, "I think you need to talk to your parents. We'll take you both to Camp at some point, but you still ask your parents."

He then followed after Seamus, stepping through the wall as well.

Leaving Hermione to think about that, Harry took a deep breath and started towards the golden wall, feeling the tingle wash over his body as he stepped through it and out onto the other side. Cautiously opening his eyes, Harry felt his jaw dropping again as he looked around the huge hall in front of him.

The room was around the size of the Great Hall, built out of what looked like marble, gold, and a type of crystal that was red, yellow, blue, and green all at the same time. Hulking columns sprouted from the walls of the hall, against the walls shrines were placed between them, Harry quickly counting fifteen of them with the largest three being up at the top of the hall where the teacher's table would be.

As he started, turning around so he could take it all in, he absently noticed the six people standing in the middle of the hall.

"Harry?" Neville called out, "Hermione? We need to introduce you the Temple."

"Is it sentient?" Hermione's awed voice asked from behind him, as Harry tried to study the hall and move forward at the same time.

"You could say that," an airy looking blonde girl agreed, smiling up at the ceiling as she swayed gently.

"Lady Hecate blessed the Temple," the older looking black haired girl explained, "I wouldn't call it sentient, but it's definitely aware and reactive."

"Can we just get this over with?" the dark-skinned boy in Slytherin robes demanded, "I've got to get back to the common room before anyone notices I'm missing."

"Patience is a virtue Son of Venus," the blond boy pointed out.

"I would tell you to bite me, Son of Athena, but nerds aren't my type," the Son of Venus countered.

The dreamy blond girl cut them off as she started singing something in a language Harry didn't recognise at first, the words seemingly 'blurring' through the air until he clearly heard the words _"-the lime in the coconut, and mix it all up. You put the lime in the coconut, and mix it all up!"_

"Luna," the black haired girl interrupted, "Neville, Seamus. You know these two better than I, would you do the honours?"

Harry watched as the two boys nodded and stepped forward, Neville moving in front of Harry while Seamus did the same to Hermione. "I, Neville Longbottom, Son of Demeter, welcome you to the Founding Temple of Hogwarts," the boy declared loudly after grabbing both of Harry's hands, Seamus doing the same to Hermione.

"I, Hadrian James Salvator Potter," Harry's mouth replied without his permission, "Son of Eris and of unknown parentage, give praise to the Gods of Olympus."

Shaking his head as Neville let go of his hands, Harry felt a full body shudder rolling down his back as magic so power he felt like crying caressed his body softly before vanishing. "What, what was that?" he gasped out, just the touch of the magic feeling like it had taken everything out of him as he breathed heavily.

"That was the Temple," Neville replied simply, "She said 'Welcome home, Harry'."


	6. Chapter 6

"So _this_ is Discordia's Firstborn?"

" _Actually_ ," Seamus corrected, smirking at the sneering Slytherin, "Harry's the Son of _Eris_ , not Discordia."

Harry just stood there blinking in confusion, exchanging a look with Hermione who seemed to be of the same mindset. "Is the difference really that important?" the bushy-haired girl asked curiously, "I mean aren't they the same people?"

"Eri- uh, Mum?" Harry whispered back hesitantly, "Said it was like having split personalities, so I don't think so."

"There is a difference," the blond boy from before explained. "If you have a Roman parent then you're an arrogant barbarian."

"And if your parent is Greek then you're uncivilised and cowardly," the familiar Slytherin snapped in response, both of them getting swatted around the back of the head by the taller black-haired girl.

"Roman Demigods are more aggressive than the Greeks, while the Greeks are more cunning than the Romans," the girl corrected bluntly. "Mainly it's a personality thing. Romans tend to be better fighters too, while the Greeks are more wild than disciplined. The Greeks also tend to rely on their powers more than their swords. I'm Jessica by the way," she introduced, "Daughter of Mercury."

"Blaise," the Slytherin blurted when Jessica narrowed her eyes at him dangerously. "Zabini. I'm in your year, Potter, you know me. I'm the Son of Venus," he added when Jessica cleared her throat.

"And I am Logan. Son of Notus, God of the South Wind," the blond introduced formally, " _Not_ the God of Hot Air," he added warningly with a scowl in Blaise's direction.

"Romans and Greeks don't like each other do they?" Hermione interrupted as Blaise opened his mouth to speak, "Sorry. It's just you two don't seem to like each other."

"It's genetic. Or as genetic as it can be when your parents don't actually have DNA," Jessica confirmed. "We just naturally don't like each other, despite being opposite sides of the same coin. That's why Trivia put the Law in place," she explained slowly, "All Magical Demigods, Greek or Roman, know of the others. But Trivia, or Hecate for you Greeks, made a Law stating that we cannot fight or alert the rest of our people about the others. The last time our people knew about each other there was a war, thousands died, and the Gods split the Romans and Greeks up so they'd never met again."

"A war?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, you've heard of the American Civil War right?" Logan clarified, "That was merely a smokescreen for a war between the Greeks in the North and the Romans of the South. While the demigods only fought for three days, it was still bloody."

"Though the topic of the war was more or less the same," Jessica continued, "The Romans practised slavery back during the height of the Empire, so naturally they were pro-confederates. It was after the third and final day that the Romans and the Greeks were separated, with only Lupa, the Roman Wolf Goddess, and Chiron the Immortal Centaur being aware of both Camps."

"But there were Demigods at Hogwarts," Hermione pointed out slowly.

"Hence the Law. Magical Demigods can sense the Godly essence within other Demigods, it manifests as a kind of buzzing behind our eyes, it would be impossible for Romans and Greeks to cohabit Hogwarts without discovering each other," Jessica clarified. "So Trivia created the Law so that we could live with each other without fighting. There's no way to break it, so it means that while things are tense, they're still safe."

"How did the Gods split the Romans and Greeks up?" Hermione asked curiously, quickly moving over to Jessica while Seamus chuckled in amusement and dragged Harry away.

"How are you holding up?" Neville asked him quietly as Logan joined Hermione and Jessica, Blaise loudly declaring he was bored of them all and was going to bed. "When I first found all of this out I hid in my bedroom for weeks."

"I'm fine," Harry lied instantly, pausing and shaking his head when both Seamus and Neville raised an eyebrow simultaneously. "I… I just don't understand it all you know? I believe this is all real, but I can't believe it at the same time. I had to kill a Basilisk, I had to constantly fight off Dementors, and now I'm in this Tournament and… I'm just so lost."

"Actually that's all happened to you because you're a Demigod," Seamus corrected with a shrug as Neville stared at him in awe. "We have this scent… one that attracts mythos to us, and we attract danger like a magnet," he said slowly, "I mean sure, I've only had to fight off a pack of Hellhounds before, and I don't know anyone who has your bad luck, but it's still a natural Demigod thing."

"That… that doesn't make me feel any better," Harry admitted slowly, the idea that he'll never be allowed peace making his stomach churn painfully.

Out of nowhere arms threw themselves around his neck, making Harry yelp in shock and instantly start trying to get away. "You're not supposed to be trying to get away you know," a dreamy voice said seriously, "Hugs make everyone feel better."

Standing there stiffly, Harry shot the smirking Seamus a dark look as Neville smiled sheepishly at him. "Harry, meet Luna Lovegood, Daughter of Iris" the normally timid boy introduced as a head of platinum blond hair fell forward to land on his shoulder, "Luna, meet Harry Potter, Son of Eris."

"Hail, Twice-Blessed Child," Luna greeted airily, her arms tightening around his neck when he shifted uncomfortably.

'Uh hail?" Harry replied uncertainly, his back beginning to ache from where he was being forced to bend backwards so Luna could hug him.

"Twice-Blessed?" Seamus blurted, silence instantly filling the air as Harry felt everyone's eyes turning to stare at him. "You're bloody Twice-Blessed too?"

"Er, yes?" Harry admitted uncomfortably, already dreading the look of awe he could see on Seamus' face.

"Don't be stupid Finnigan," Logan's voice drawled from behind them, "The Twice-Blessed are just a myth, there's no such thing."

"You're a myth?" Luna blurted, removing herself from Harry's back and spinning him around forcibly, inspecting him with narrowed eyes.

"He's not Twice-Blessed," Logan denied with a snort, Jessica nodding in agreement beside him while Hermione looked ready to start arguing.

" _Actually_ , the Goblins performed an inheritance test," Hermione corrected simply, her lips pursed as she scowled up at the two older Demigods. "Harry's mother was Eris while his father was 'Undetermined'."

"Just because Potter's got two Godly parents, doesn't make him Twice-Blessed," Jessica argued with a huff.

"Eris said both my cores are developing," Harry said slowly, "She could sense my father's essence."

"That _does_ make him Twice-Blessed though," Jessica admitted with a frown, "Are you sure you can believe her? She's the Goddess of Discord after all. And Twice-Blessed are even rarer than children of the Big Three, so the likelihood of her Firstborn being Twice-Blessed is really low."

"Why would she lie about this though?" Hermione countered, "And why would she lie to her own son?"

"I wouldn't put it past her," Logan muttered under his breath.

"Hey!" Harry snapped, "Don't talk about my mother like that!"

Jolting back in shock, Harry frowned as he realised what he'd just said, not entirely sure about where it had come from. While he believed Eris on the count of being his mother, he wasn't so sure that he had accepted it. Believing was different to seeing after all. And despite the part of himself that was telling him to latch onto Eris and never let go, Harry didn't think he was ready to just accept Eris into his 'family', the family that had previously consisted solely of Hermione and the Weasleys.

Apparently however, his mind had made up it's… it's mind… on that front.

"Harry?"

His head snapped up as Hermione's hand landed on his shoulder, his chocolate-eyed best friend smiling faintly at him. "You're allowed to want a family, Harry," she said softly, "Just because Eris is your mother, doesn't mean Lily wasn't also."

"Lily _was_ Eris," Harry mumbled without thinking.

"Which just means that the transition will be easier for you," Hermione dismissed. "I'm not… I'm not entirely happy about all of this," she confessed slowly, "I mean I have too many questions that haven't been answered yet, and admittedly I'm a little suspicious of Eris' timing. But even if I don't fully believe it, I'm accepting it. Although, I'm going to have to work on the believing part since I'm apparently part of it myself," she added in an absent-minded mutter.

"You're taking him to your Camp sometime soon right?" Jessica asked Neville, "Because Chiron is definitely going to meet him."

"I know right?" Seamus blurted excitedly, making Harry and Hermione exchange a shocked glance. "Erisborn _and_ Twice-Blessed! Capture the Flag is going to be the meanest!" the pyromaniac exclaimed.

"Capture the Flag? Demigods play _Capture the Flag_?" Harry asked bluntly, unable to wrap his mind around the idea of a bunch of half-gods running around in a forest looking for a flag.

Funny how out of everything, _Capture the Flag_ is what he has the most trouble believing...

"Harry, Harry, Harry," Seamus drawled, throwing his arms over Harry's shoulders. "Mortals play Capture the Flag with a flag. Us Demigods? _We_ play Capture the Flag with… well we play Capture the Flag with a flag too," he admitted sheepishly, his cheeks heating up a bit as Hermione giggled. " _But_ we also play in a monster-infested forest, armed to the teeth with pointed sticks and supernatural powers," he finished quickly as if it made all the difference in the world.

"It sounds… dangerous," Harry said hesitantly, before turning a mock-glare on Hermione as she coughed out something that sounded suspiciously like 'Quidditch'.

"It's also compulsory," Neville added with a depressed look, "It's kind of like an end of the week test of what we've learnt in class."

And of course _that_ got Hermione's attention, Harry mused as the bushy-haired girl's head whipped around to stare at Neville in warring curiosity and dread. "What are we actually taught there?" she asked curiously, "Because I get the feeling that things like maths or science aren't on the schedule."

"Actually they are," Jessica corrected, "Think of it like Hogwarts, with mandatory classes like potions and charms, and then with the electives like divination and runes. It's just things like swordsmanship and archery are the mandatory ones while muggle subjects are electives. Or that's what it's like in Camp Jupiter," she added with a shrug, "You Greeks are so lazy I don't know what to expect from you."

As Logan launched into the defensive, starting up an argument between Jessica and the Greek Demigods, Harry allowed Hermione to drag him away from them. "So? What do you think so far?" he asked her slowly, glancing over at Luna who was sitting on the floor and happily chatting to one of the shrines against the wall.

"I don't know," Hermione said hesitantly, biting her lip and staring at the arguing Demigods. "It's all too much to process right now. And I need to talk to Mum and Dad before I decide on anything."

"Hedwig wouldn't mind delivering a letter for you," Harry offered simply, "She'd love the chance to go out flying, and it's not like I have any letters to send."

As Hermione shot him a grateful smile, Harry studied the fifteen shrines around the Temple, most of the symbols carved into the stone above them ones he remembered from muggle school. "It's just so unbelievable," she murmured softly, "I mean I know we've got proof, but to think this entire world was hidden right beneath our noses. And not just from muggles but from magicals as well. I mean it's a big enough surprise that witches and wizards existed, but to think there are two, _three_ even if you split up the Romans and Greeks, worlds all hidden right beneath the noses of everybody else."

Huh, Harry hadn't thought of it like that. "What hides the gods then? I mean I know wizards have muggle-repelling and memory charms, but what do the Demigods use?" he asked quietly.

"I wonder if this 'Chiron' will let me borrow some books from the Camp library," Hermione mumbled hopefully.

"What if the Camp doesn't _have_ a library?" Harry pointed out innocently, watching as a look of both horror and disgust flashed across Hermione's face in response.

"If they don't, then they better build me one," she growled out, pausing and glancing at his face before they both burst into laughter, Harry not resisting as Hermione slipped an arm around his waist and hugged him. "I'm sorry about earlier," she whispered as he hugged her back, resting his chin on her shoulder as she buried her face into his chest, "Ron cornered me while I was looking up a book in the library. He was going on about you being a cheat, calling you arrogant like he didn't even know you. I was just so angry at him, but I didn't want to start a fight so I just left, and then I took it out on you instead."

"S'okay," Harry said quickly, "I don't care, you know I don't."

Hermione huffed against his shirt as they stood there hugging for a moment longer, Harry unable to keep himself from admitting that "I don't know about you, but I'm actually really curious about Capture the Flag, it sounds fun."

"Monster-infested forests? Pointy sticks and supernatural powers?" Hermione repeated slowly, "You wouldn't be Harry Potter if that didn't interest you."

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"So are you two okay with this Saturday? Luna said she's spoken to Chiron and he wants to meet you," was how Neville greeted Harry and Hermione as he sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast.

"How are we going to get there?" Hermione asked curiously as Harry opened his mouth to speak, the glare she was sending him across the table making him close his mouth to finish his mouthful first.

"We're going to Mist there," Neville explained quietly, "It's uh, our version of apparition. We'll be spending around eight hours there, we normally leave around seven and get back around two. In British time at least," he added.

"And will that be long enough?" Harry asked slowly.

"No," Neville denied simply, "But that's all we'll be able to manage without breaking the school rules."

"But leaving Hogsmeade itself _is_ breaking school rules," Hermione countered.

"Not when you have a Professor's permission to leave," Neville corrected, "Madam Pince is one of us, and since we're going to see family she's able to give us permission to leave Hogsmeade. It's not like anyone's actually cared enough to check though, Seamus and I have been going to Camp since second year and nobody's stopped us."

"I can't wait to see the library," Hermione admitted absently, "I want to know everything, and Luna kept interrupting herself to talk about some stupid made up creatures."

"Nargles? Wrackspurts?" Neville questioned knowingly, "Yeah they're not made up," the boy denied when Hermione nodded. "They're spirits. Well the Wrackspurts are, Nargles are a kind of invisible pixie. They're not really called Nargles or Wrackspurts of course, but nobody actually knows what they're called. They say," Neville paused and glanced around before leaning forward, "They say that they came from Pandora's Box," he whispered to them, "There's a legend in one of the books back at Camp and it mentions Nargles being the 'spawn of Pandora's folly'."

"Wait, Pandora was real?" Hermione blurted, her eyes wide, "So are all the myths real?"

"Most of them," Neville shrugged, "Some of them have been changed, back before they were written down, as people got them wrong. But most of the myths are really just stories from-" "Mr Potter" "-long ago."

Turning around in his seat, trying to keep the scowl from his face, Harry stared up at the red-robed form of Albus Dumbledore. "Yes Headmaster?" he ground out slowly, not wanting to talk to the man, "Is there a problem?"

He wasn't sure what to think about the Headmaster any-more. At first he'd thought Dumbledore had entered him into the Tournament, but even though he now knew he hadn't, there was still the matter of the man stealing his mail and taking the books about contracts out of the library. Of course there was also Professor McGonagall's admission that Dumbledore had ordered them not to help Harry, but for some reason he could 'feel' that something was off about that claim.

"Not at all my boy," Dumbledore denied with a gentle smile, "I merely wish to ask you to meet me in my office after breakfast, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

"No."

"Thank yo- I'm sorry?" Dumbledore asked slowly, staring at Harry in shock.

"I said 'No'," Harry clarified with a small smile, "As I told you yesterday, unless you're going to tell me I don't have to compete then I don't want anything to do with you."

"Now, now Harry," Dumbledore began.

"Mr Potter," he corrected, "Now if you don't mind..."

"Detention," Dumbledore interrupted as Harry trailed off and began to turn back to the Gryffindor table. "Mr Potter, I am your Headmaster and I demand to be treated with respect."

"Then you should have thought of that before you committed _fraud_ , Headmaster," Harry found himself spitting out as he turned to face the old man, rising up from his seat to glare at him, all thoughts of being polite gone from his mind. "Can you imagine my surprise when I found out that apparently I've been living in _Manchester_ with your son and daughter instead of with my abusive manaphobic relatives?" he growled, making the twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes go dark, "The Goblins weren't too pleased to discover that you've been illegally intercepting my mail for the past thirteen years either. They seemed rather peeved actually," he added innocently.

"Mr Potter," Dumbledore said as he straightened himself up to his full height, scowling down at him with a disappointed expression on his face, "I would appreciate it if you stopped making such hurtful accusations. You of all people should know what it feels like to be falsely accused of something."

"Yeah well I'd appreciate it if you stopped trying to get me killed!" Harry cut in angrily, absently realising that everyone was staring at them now. "Now if you don't mind sir, but if you hadn't heard, I've been entered into a deadly tournament against three people who are four years my senior. I really need to get started on my training."

Turning his back on Dumbledore, Harry picked his bag up and nodded to Hermione, his bushy-haired best friend already pushing her plate away and picking up her own bag. To his surprise, Neville scrambled out of his seat and joined them as they started down the aisles, the quiet boy sending Harry a look that said 'I'm on your side'.

"If I can get a teacher to give us permission," Harry whispered to the other boy, "Could we go to the camp on a non-Hogsmeade day?"

Neville looked a little shocked, but quickly nodded his head, both of them pretending not to notice the way almost every eye in the Great Hall was staring at them. "Ye-yeah," he agreed, "But it'd need to be McGonagall."

Harry felt a grin spreading across his face at Neville's words, as he felt everything clicking into place. "Let's go wake up Seamus then," he declared as Hermione joined them at the door, "Because we're leaving now."


	7. Chapter 7

As his feet hit the ground, Harry's legs almost gave way beneath him as he gasped for air.

"Oh Merlin," Hermione's voice groaned somewhere to his right, "I think I'm going to be sick."

"It gets better," Neville promised as Harry hung off his arm, panting for breath as the feeling of being forced through a tight rubber tube still lingered. "It's only like that because we're not related. If Harry was a Son of Demeter then he wouldn't have felt a thing, but since he's not it meant that his essence was forced through mine."

"Dude. That sounds dirty," Seamus' voice chuckled.

Rolling his eyes, Harry let go of Neville and slowly pushed himself upright, the feeling of 'Misting' even worse than that of a portkey. "Is Camp Half-Blood nearby?" Hermione asked slowly as Harry looked up and down the room they had appeared in.

"You could say that," Seamus agreed cheerfully, "It's only around two hours away, give or take."

"This is the Montauk train station," Neville corrected slowly, "There's kind of an unofficial rule, you have to make your way to the Camp on your own."

"It's this Rite of Passage thing you know?" Seamus explained, practically bouncing away from them and starting to enter a code into one of the lockers and causing it to pop open. "Neville IM'd Chiron and he told us to take you this way, the Romans have something like this, only their one involves a dog or something," the Irish boy continued as he pulled two backpacks from the locker and held them out.

"Can't we just do the Rite of Passage thing later?" Hermione asked nervously, accepting the backpack and unzipping it with a grimace, "I'm not exactly an outdoorsy person."

"Hogwarts has the boat ride in first year," Neville pointed out simply, "And we had to do it when we first discovered we were Demigods. It's just tradition."

"Exactly!" Seamus interrupted, "This is just the scenic route. Each new Demigod has to pass through the Barrier on their own. It's also impossible to Mist through the Barrier, but that's just semantics."

Discovering that the backpack had a couple of bottles of water and some protein bars, Harry continued to dig deeper into it, pulling out a laminated piece of paper that he unfolded to reveal a map of the area. "Is that Camp Half-Blood?" he questioned slowly, pointing to the large orange archway on the map, the one with thick red dotted lines leading up to it from the 'You are Here' sign on the train station.

"Yup," Seamus confirmed, "Now remember, you're allowed to use magic in America, just try keep muggles from seeing it. And, now to arm you!"

"Arm us?" Hermione squeaked, as Seamus began ruffling through the locker.

"Aye, the way to Camp is sorta dangerous, full of monsters and the like," Seamus replied, "Though from the stories I hear, you two won't have much of a problem with that."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Harry, just about everyone knows the things you get up to year in, year out," Neville explained, "We know about the Troll, the Cerberus, and Quirrel in first year."

Seamus picked off where Neville finished, "Yep, not to mention the basilisk in second year, we were all impressed with that one!"

Harry flushed at being called out on his past misadventures and coughed to gain Seamus' attention. "So, weapons?"

"Ah right, sorry, got carried away there," the Irish boy apologized as he pulled a sword that looked to be around half a metre in length.

"This… this is a sword," Hermione squeaked out as Seamus shoved the faintly glowing sword into her hands.

"Here we go," Neville muttered, looking uncomfortable as he stepped back.

"This? This isn't _just_ a sword," Seamus blurted, sounding scandalized as he snatched the sword back from Hermione and cradled it to his chest. " _This_ , is a celestial bronze _xiphos_. A double-edged one-handed weapon commonly used by Demigods young and old! She's 21 inches in length exactly, and is a comfortable starting weight for a beginner swordsman like yourself."

"Never tell a child of either Hephaestus or Ares that a sword is just a sword," Neville piped up, "They get defensive."

"And," Seamus continued with an annoyed glance in Neville's direction, "To top it all off, look at _that_ ," he exclaimed, lifting the sword so they could see the base of the hilt where 'S.F' was roughly scratched into the metal. "I made these swords myself, I finally got my celestial bronze licence last holidays," he added proudly as he presented the sword to Harry, "Yes, yes. I know. I'm awesome."

"But this is a sword," Hermione repeated slowly, apparently missing out on Seamus' little rant. "It- _She_ is a very pretty sword, but I don't know how to use a sword."

"It'll come to you," Seamus dismissed, "You're a Demigod, it's in your blood."

Awkwardly gripping the sword and testing the uncomfortable weight of it in his hand, Harry looked between Hermione and Seamus nervously, "But shouldn't we get some training first? I mean, these are actually swords. And how are we going to hide them? They don't exactly fit in our pockets."

"Actually they kinda do," Neville corrected, "Pretty much all the weapons we have at Camp are enchanted, they'll shrink when you put them in your pockets. And don't worry, you'll be taught how to handle weapons properly once you reach the Camp."

"But I don't know how to use a sword," Harry said slowly, "What if I end up stabbing Hermione by accidentally?"

"Uh you could try not to?" Seamus offered with a shrug, holding the second sword he'd pulled from the locker out to Hermione before pausing with a frown. "Maybe not," he mused before shoving the sword back into the locker and sticking his head inside, "You look like the kind of girl to use one of these," he exclaimed as he pulled out a bow and a full quiver which he handed to her.

"I uh-" Hermione stuttered as she looked at the bow in her hands like it'd come alive in seconds and attack her, before blinking up at the more experienced Demigods with a lost expression.

"You'll be fine," Seamus dismissed, throwing his arm over Neville's shoulder, "Like I said, try not to get caught with the weapons. The Mist will change them to look like something more acceptable to Mortals, the only problem is that since they're weapons, the 'more acceptable' items for them is usually a gun. So yeah, don't whip them out in public. We'll be waiting for you at Camp."

Opening his mouth to argue, Harry was cut off by Seamus exploding into red mist, a grimacing Neville being pulled along with him. "Did they just leave us here?" Hermione blurted, looking panicked at the mere idea of having to do this alone.

"Hermione! Hermione relax!" Harry exclaimed quickly, dropping his bag and grabbing onto Hermione's hands as she dropped the bow and arrows and raised them to tug at her hair. "We'll be fine. We've got water, we've got food. We've got a map, two weapons _and_ our wands," he listed calmly, not as affected by the sudden 'abandonment' as Hermione was. "And I may or may not have my invisibility cloak in my pocket," he admitted sheepishly, having refused to leave without it.

"But we're not ready!" Hermione argued, staring at the bow lying on the ground at their feet with wide eyes, "We're not prepared."

"Were we prepared to go after the Philosopher's Stone in first year?" Harry countered, "Were we ready to go rescue Sirius last year? I'm the Boy-Who-Lived, and you're the brightest Witch of our year. If Seamus and Neville can do this, then so can we. No offence to either of them," he added guiltily.

He and Hermione started at each other for a moment, the panic in her eyes fading into nervousness instead as Harry watched. "Harry, _I'm_ not ready," Hermione confessed, "I'm not ready to be a Demigod. Yesterday I was just Hermione, and I loved my parents, but now I'm a Demigod and my parents aren't really my parents. I… I don't know if I can do this," she explained, her eyes filling with tears.

"Hermione. Your parents are still your parents," Harry said softly, pulling his sister in all but blood into a hug. "James Potter was the man who fed and changed me as a baby, not whoever my Godly father was. James Potter is the one who gave me his name, not my Godly father. James Potter is the one who died for me," he finished, "And my Godly father hasn't even _tried_ to contact me. As far as I'm concerned, James Potter is more my father than the God that conceived me."

Pulling back slightly, Harry raised an eyebrow at Hermione as she wiped her eyes and nodded. "You're right," she murmured, "We should go."

"Really? That quickly?" Harry said before he could stop himself, cringing back as Hermione picked up her backpack and fixed him with a 'Really?' look.

"Don't think for a second that I'm over this," Hermione declared, "I'm not ready, but I'm prepared. I can break down later."

"Wait… _that's_ what you got from that?" he asked slowly, wondering how Hermione of all people could miss the point entirely.

"No," Hermione denied, sending him an annoyed look as she picked the bow and quiver up and awkwardly put it back into her bag, "But I'm ready to move on now. No point in crying over something that doesn't matter anymore. Mum and Dad are more my parents than anyone else, and that's all that matters."

Harry was unable to stop himself from smiling at Hermione as he picked up his own backpack, sliding it onto his back and offering her his arm. "Shall we?" he asked formally, his smile turning into a grin as she rolled her eyes but slid her arm through his. "So I know Seamus said it would take around two hours, but do we really have to walk all that way?" he asked as they started towards the door.

Hermione looked panicked again for a moment, before a devious look appeared on her face, "He said nothing about taking the bus," she corrected innocently.

Staring at her expression in shock, Harry could only allow her to drag him out of the locker room and into the station itself. "Who are you, and what did you do to Hermione Granger?" he asked dumbly, making his bushy-haired friend let out a concerning slightly evil laugh.

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"If we turn left at the highway, we'll just need to follow it along until we reach the state parks. From there we can either follow the road until we reach the service road, or hike through the forest and save some time."

"Harry? Harry!"

Jumping in shock as his name was screamed into his ear, Harry quickly turned his attention towards the annoyed looking Hermione walking beside him. "Yeah?" he asked cautiously, watching as her eye twitched at him.

"Hike in the forest to save time? Or follow the road which is safer?" Hermione pressed, Harry absently realising his feet were already hurting from just walking.

"I guess we should follow the road," Harry suggested slowly, "Remember what Seamus said yesterday about our scents? And if the forest is monster infested, then it's probably a bad idea to walk through it."

Hermione hummed under her breath as Harry looked around guiltily, realising he hadn't been showing any tact in front of the occasional muggle walking past them at what was apparently around three in the morning. "That makes sense," she agreed, "Especially since most 'mythos' are magic resistant and we don't have any warriors with us.". When he started at her with wide eyes, Hermione just snorted and rolled her eyes at him, "Honestly Harry. Nobody here cares that we play Dungeons and Dragons, if we want to talk about our latest quest then we'll talk about our latest quest."

Nodding slowly, Harry just decided to go along with Hermione's cover, knowing a little about DnD from before Hogwarts. "And with how low our, uh, levels are? It's probably not the best idea to go wandering through said monster infested forest," he said slowly, "Especially since as Wizards we can't use armour or weapons."

"Exactly. So we go around the forest? It may take us a little longer to get there, but once we learn the teleport spell, we can just teleport straight there instead of walking," Hermione continued, acting more like she was just planning aloud instead of talking to him.

When Harry nodded, Hermione folded up the map and slipped it into her pocket, tightening her grip on his arm as they walked. "Are… are we doing the right thing?" she whispered, making him frown over at her.

"No idea," Harry admitted bluntly, "You're the one who makes all the plans, I'm the one who follows my gut."

"And what does your gut say about this?" Hermione asked softly.

"My gut tells me that even if I hadn't changed my mind about leaving early, then having a couple of extra days to prepare myself for this wouldn't have helped," Harry confessed. "I still feel like I'm just going to wake up and find out it's all been a dream. And I know that the Camp is where it's all going to hit home for me, that once I reach the Camp that it's all going to be real. Why? What do your plans say about this?" he asked, a flicker of nervousness rising up in his chest at Hermione's question.

"Well it's not like I've ever done anything like this before," she said slowly, "I can't make a plan without knowing the variables. And since I don't know anything about the variables of this world, I can't make a plan."

"So… winging it?" Harry asked innocently, grinning down at his friend as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Merlin, you're such a Gryffindor," Hermione muttered, scrunching her face up as Harry instantly reminded her that _she_ was a Gryffindor as well. "I hate you," she pouted as he laughed, her grip on his arm relaxing as she leaned her head against his shoulder while they walked. "What…" she began after a short silence, "What do you think the Camp is going to be like?"

Honestly? Harry wasn't sure about what to expect at the Camp. Seamus made it sound like a home away from home, while Neville made it sound rather like Hogwarts. And while Hogwarts was a home away from home to Harry, he got the feeling that Camp Half-Blood couldn't be any less like Hogwarts if it tried. And part of him told Harry that this was good, but another part of him was afraid that it'd be exactly like Hogwarts where it 'mattered'. The last thing he wanted was to be 'The Twice-Blessed' instead of 'Harry Potter', it'd be just like being the 'Boy-Who-Lived' all over again. Harry kind of wanted a place to be himself, where he didn't have to worry about how he acted because of his 'fame'.

"Do you, do you think Neville and Seamus have already told people that I'm Twice-Blessed?" he asked, ignoring her question in favour of his own. "I mean I know we need to tell, uh, Chiron? But do you think we could not tell anyone else?" he explained hopefully, "I don't want to be stared at anymore."

"Oh, Harry," Hermione exhaled, pulling back to watch him as he stubbornly kept his gaze on the pavement. "I don't think it would matter, even if you could keep it a secret," she denied, making his attention snap to her fully as he turned his head to face her. "Even if you're not a Twice-Blessed to them, you're still the Firstborn Son of Eris, and if the other's reactions were enough then I don't think that you'll get any peace either way."

"Of course I won't get peace, Eris is the Goddess of Strife," Harry snapped without thinking, pausing and grimacing before glancing over at Hermione guiltily. "Sorry, I'm just…"

"Confused?" Hermione finished when he trailed off, "You're not the only one."

"I hate my life sometimes," Harry mumbled.

"If it makes you feel better, then I hate your life sometimes too," Hermione agreed, "I've forgotten what a normal school year feels like, and every year with you makes things stranger and stranger. I hate to see what you do next year, it's going to be hard to beat the Olympian Gods."

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"I always hated forests," Hermione said suddenly, making Harry glance over at his exhausted friend. "Dad loves hiking, but personally I hated it. The nature got everywhere."

"The nature got everywhere?" he echoed, biting back a yawn as Hermione's jaw popped during her own. "So you're probably not the Daughter of Demeter or Artemis," he pointed out slowly, trying to distract her from their aching feet by proving he was listening during her earlier 'Olympian Gods 101' lesson.

"Artemis doesn't have children," Hermione corrected instantly, "And you've seen me during Herbology, Harry, you know I don't have a green thumb."

"I know, I just thought 'What if Hermione's Mum _isn't_ Athena?'," he pointed out defensively. "Athena's a Virgin Goddess as well," he said quickly, realising his mistake as Hermione opened her mouth. "I just can't think of who else it could be. Unless there's a Goddess of Bushy Hair," he added jokingly.

"If I could raise my arms I'd hit you," Hermione dead-panned, making him chuckle as her face scrunched up in thought. "What about… Hecate?" she questioned, "She's Goddess of Magic, and I'm not only the brightest Witch of our year, but I'm also a Muggleborn?"

"You're arrogant, that's what you are," Harry teased, grinning again as Hermione raised her hand threateningly.

"Oh yeah? What about you?" Hermione countered, a tired smile on her face as she rose to his challenge. "Who's the God of Bad Luck?"

"Most likely my father," Harry muttered, both of them freezing as a loud haunting howl echoed through the air, sending shivers down Harry's spine reminiscent of a dementor's aura. "Told you so," he groaned as he and Hermione automatically pulled out their wands, looking up and down the road to make sure there were no muggles around.

"What was that?" Hermione asked nervously, grasping his arm as he started running through all the offensive spells he knew.

As more howls filled the air, signalling the presence of a pack instead of just a single wolf, Harry glanced around before grabbing Hermione's arm and pulling her into the forest. "I don't know, but I don't like the sound of it," he confessed, his wand tip sparking dangerously.

"Oh Merlin, what do we do?" Hermione blurted, "What can we do? We don't have any weapons, and magic is useless against them!"

"Hermione," he began.

"We need help Harry, we can't fight them without help," Hermione continued, her face pale and her voice shaking in fear. "Oh my God. I'm not ready, I'm not ready," she realised hysterically, looking panicked and lost.

"Hermione!" he yelled, snapping her attention away from the approaching threat and back to him. "How close are we to the Camp?" he asked as another barrage of howling filled the air and she trembled weakly, "Hermione! Can we make it?" he demanded when she just shook and whimpered.

"I- I don't know," she stuttered out.

Resisting the urge to slap her out of her panic, Harry grabbed her arm instead and started leading her through the forest at a run. "Hermione! We need a plan!" he yelled as she almost tripped into a hole in the ground, "Hermione!"

Thankfully, Hermione seemed to snap out of it and start running on her own, freeing Harry up to keep an eye on their surroundings as another round of howling filled the air. "They're right on top of us 'Mione! We need a plan!" Harry yelled, able to hear the wolf-dogs following them, crashing through the trees.

Hermione's scream stabbed into Harry's ears as something huge and black exploded out of the trees in front of them, shining fangs snarling and red eyes glowing. Catching Hermione before she ran into what Harry's mind instantly identified as a 'grim', Harry tugged her behind him as he followed the sounds of three other hounds bounding out of the forest and into the clearing, all of them taller than him and Hermione.

"Hermione," he whispered as they instinctively went back-to-back, his head darting left and right in an attempt to keep all four giant dogs in view. "My left pocket has a small expansion charm on it, Professor McGonagall cast it for me before we left. My invisibility cloak is in it," he explained as the dogs snarled and growled at them, drool pouring from their mouths as if from a hose. "Take it and put it on. Make your way to the Camp to get help," he ordered. "Don't argue with me," he said louder, overriding Hermione's sound of disgust and instant refusal, "Just do it!"

'Eris… Mum… Please help me' he prayed hopefully, eyes flicking to the sky for a moment before remembering his mother was in Tartarus and dropping his eyes to the ground instead. 'Mum. Dad. Please we need help,' he continued mentally as he ignored Hermione's argument behind him, 'At least help Hermione if you can't help me. As long as she makes it.'

"-not leaving you!" Hermione was saying as he returned his attention to the problem at hand. "Not when magic doesn't work against them!"

"Hermione!" he roared as one of the hounds made a feint towards him, Harry's _incindio_ barely scorching it as the hound took the spell in the face and shrugged it off, the smell of sulfur filling his nose. "I'm not giving you a choice here! We're not that far away from the Camp, you'll be there and back with help before you know it," he assured her, despite knowing that it would only take seconds for just _one_ of the hellhounds to tear him to shreds.

(The sulfur gave them away, he didn't need to be as smart as Hermione to put two and two together)

Realising that Hermione was right about magic, Harry pocketed his wand and instead reached over his shoulder and shoved his hand into his backpack, pulling out the sword that Seamus had given him. Almost instantly, the hellhound in front of him backed away slightly, glowing red eyes locked onto the softly glowing blade Harry was holding in front of him. Swinging the sword awkwardly, Harry watched as the hellhound ducked away from it each time, realising that even if he couldn't use it as an actual weapon, that the sword worked perfectly as a 'nuclear deterrent'.

As the sword cut through the air, forcing the hellhound before him to back off or get hurt, he let out a stuttered gasp as a presence engulfed him with a sensation he'd only felt from one of Mrs Weasley's hugs. Feelings of love and family encompassing him, Harry felt the leather wristbands sealed around his forearms beginning to heat up, drawing his eyes down to them in time to catch them shimmering slightly as – like a switch had been flicked in his mind - he just suddenly knew what they were and how to use them.

Eyes flicking between the bands and the circling hounds, Harry stepped forward to swing his sword at a feinting hellhound, pride flooding him as it let out a yelp when the blade opened up a gash on it's face. "Fine! Plan B then!" he decided as he stepped back in towards Hermione, who was still using her wand on the hellhounds despite it's uselessness on them. "Wait for my signal, then plaster yourself as tightly to my back as you can. Then… then we run like Fluffy is after us and we're dressed like a squeaky toy."

Hermione let out a startled scoffing-snort, pausing to cast a _diffindo_ at a Hellhound. "Your plans are terrible!" she snarled over her shoulder, "I hate your plans!"

"Then why don't you come up with something?" Harry snapped back at her, knowing it was just the fear making her speak like that (She got the same way before a test). When Hermione didn't respond beyond uselessly cursing a hellhound, Harry nodded curtly, "Alright then! My plan, on three!"

"Wait! One, two, three go?" Hermione asked out of nowhere, "Or one, two, and go on three?"

Rolling his eyes, since even _he_ got that joke, Harry instead replied with "One," spinning his sword around and stabbing it into the earth at his feet.

The hellhound in front of Harry was tensing up, he could see it's head lowering as it's muscles bunched up beneath it's thin coat of coal black fur.

"Two."

His wristbands were still rather warm as he shifted his weight in preparation to raise his arms. Merlin he hoped this would work, while he was certain that he could use them, he wasn't so certain that they were made with _car-sized_ hellhounds in mind.

"Three."

The hellhound in front of him lunged forward just as Harry said 'Three', meaning he was already prepared as he brought both arms up and slammed his forearms together, elbow to elbow and fist to fist, willing with everything he had for them to work.

"HARRY!"

Hermione's scream echoed through his mind as he felt energy rolling through his body, exploding out around him as the Hellhound came within inches of his face, before being blasted back and into a tree by the energy.

"Oh my God," Hermione choked out as Harry strained to keep his forearms together, the backlash of the shimmering dome of power surrounding them both making him feel like his arms were going to be torn off. "Oh my God. Harry?"

"My arms," he rasped, "Hold my arms together!"

Almost instantly he felt Hermione turning around behind him and latching onto him, her sweaty hands grasping his forearms and pushing them together. Able to move his focus away slightly, Harry studied the force field encircling them. It was almost invisible, the only sign of it's presence was the way the air warped and twisted in a ring around them. A soft shimmer of colour rolled through the shield, constantly changing from a black even darker than the hellhound's coat, to a softer silver that made everything seem so much brighter.

Feeling the drain on his energy, sweat rolling down his face, he felt the pressure stabbing into him every time a hellhound launched themselves uselessly at the barrier. "Get ready… to run," he forced out, flinching as another attack made his arms jerk apart slightly.

"One... two..." As the force field sent another hellhound flying, Harry shouted out 'three' and allowed his arms to be thrown away from each other like they were both 'north' points on a magnet. Absently watching the way the force field seemed to roll out from them, staggering the hellhounds surrounding them, Harry grabbed Hermione's arm and his sword and they ran.

His blood pumping in his ears, his heart pounding through his skull, Harry sprinted as fast as he could while keeping even with Hermione. Listening to Hermione throwing curses and hexes over her shoulder, Harry focused on leading them around trees and holes in the ground.

"OVER HERE! HARRY! THIS WAY!"

Harry changed directions towards the wildly flailing Seamus, using his grip on Hermione's arm to help her keep running as she almost tripped up. "RUN!" the Irishman continued frantically, around a dozen teenagers standing beside him with their weapons drawn, none of them making a move to help. "GET BEHIND THE BARRIER!"

Suddenly things were moving in slow motion, as Harry saw the black blur from the corner of his eye, forcing him to release Hermione's arm and slash at the hellhound which couldn't stop it's charge in time. Being lifted cleanly off his feet by the momentum, a yelp escaped his lips as he was slammed into a tree by the hellhound's body. As the hellhound reared up above him, a loud wet 'thunk' filled the air, an arrow slamming into the flesh on its rear leg and making it stagger to the side.

"HARRY! RUN!" Hermione screamed, forcing Harry to fight through the pain in his chest to turn to face her, his bushy haired best friend's entire body trembling as she awkwardly pulled another arrow from the quiver at her feet and nocked the bow again.

As more arrows came from the direction of Seamus and the other Demigods, Harry's world narrowed down to Hermione and the hellhound about to lunge at her from the side. Snatching up his sword, Harry moved purely on instinct and let out a 'battle cry' as he charged the hellhound himself, raising his sword in both hands and bringing it down with all the strength he had left before the hound ever realised he was there.

To his immediate disgust, what he automatically identified as blood splashed into his face as his sword continued down through the hellhound's neck and into the ground.

A wordless exclamation from Hermione made him spin around instantly, bringing the sword up again only to find Hermione sitting there with a dumbfounded look on her face as she stared up at him. "Your eyes," she gasped out, her whole body trembling as she just sat there, "They're… they're… black," she finished as her own eyes dropped down to his arms.

Looking down, Harry barely had time to realise that the veins in his arms had swollen up and gone black as if his blood itself had changed colours, before his instincts screamed at him and he was tackled by a hellhound. Even as a scream was torn from his throat, pain filling him as the hellhound's teeth sank into his arm, Harry was helpless to do anything but watch as power flared in his chest and rolled down his arms and into the hellhound, taking the blackness in his veins with it.

The hellhound still instantly, releasing his arm which Harry tucked into his chest as he stared at the hellhound's eyes, watching as the glowing red was covered by a cloud of black. Snarling drew his attention to the hellhound pincushion as it entered his line of sight, the hellhound standing above him beginning to trembling before it whirled around and launched itself bodily at the other hound. Unable to do anything but watch, Harry just lay there as the hellhound tore it's 'packmate's' throat out violently and then dove for the other hound.

"HARRY! RUN!"

Hermione's voice snapped him out of his shock, and he surged to his feet, accepting Seamus' shoulder to lean on as they hurried through a 'wall' of magic and as the others retreated as well. Collapsing to his hands and knees when they came to a stop, Harry turned back to the hellhounds in time to see the remaining one start throwing itself around violently, ramming itself into trees and tearing them apart crazily.

"Harry?"

Glancing over to Hermione and catching the question in her eyes, Harry could only nod in response, every breath feeling like he was breathing in fire. "It was me," he rasped out, "I did that?"

"Harry, you're bleeding," Hermione corrected, staring at him in horror as he realised she'd never really seen the 'blood' aspect of any of his adventures.

"I'm fine, I've… I've had worse," he denied as he glanced down at his arm weakly. He could barely feel it, the basilisk venom in second year hurt ten times worse than the hellhound's bite. And then as if his body was determined to prove him wrong, Harry felt himself choking and instinctively started coughing, watching as blood splattered across the grass in front of him.

"Oh," he exhaled as everything started to go black, "That's bad."


	8. Chapter 8

"Hello Harry."

Harry's eyes snapped open to meet the green eyes of his mother, Eris' eyes a darker forest green because of the anger he could see shining in them.

"Mum?" he asked sleepily, blinking at her slowly as she smiled tightly at him. "What? Where?"

"You broke your ribs," Eris explained abruptly, "When the hellhound threw you into the tree it broke your ribs. And then when you allowed yourself to be tackled the second time, you pierced a lung. If it weren't for the adrenaline running through your veins at the time, you'd have died before the sexy Irish boy could have gotten to you."

Sexy Irish boy? What? His ribs were broken?

"You're probably a little confused," Eris mused thoughtfully, "This is a dream. Currently your body is in the medical centre of Camp Half-Blood, and since you're not awake to use a mirror, this is the best I can do."

"The hellhounds?" Harry asked dumbly, his memories a little fuzzy. He remembered fighting them… the wristbands he was wearing created shields… something gold?

"Dead. Or banished, at least, back to Tartarus," Eris said bluntly. "You beheaded one that had attacked your Demigod friend. Then you used your powers on the one that pierced your lung, driving it into such a mindless rage that it turned on its pack mates and tore them to shreds," she finished with a hint of pride in her voice.

Bile rose up in Harry's throat as the memory resurfaced, and he quickly sat up and looked around, finding himself lying on a pile of cushions beside Eris' throne in the same room he'd appeared in the other day. "How… how bad was it? My ribs?" he clarified when Eris just raised an elegant eyebrow at him.

"They've already healed," Eris dismissed with a wave of her hand as she remained lounging against the cushions. "You're just sleeping because you're exhausted right now. Overpowering the gift I gave you, and somehow managing to infect a hellhound with discord wiped you out," she said slowly. "I'm impressed by the way, I imagined your first use of power would be on a human, but you managed to infect a _hellhound_. That takes a lot of power, especially considering that your divine core is still developing."

Only able to nod weakly in response, Harry stared as his 'mother' pulled a slinky out of thin air and started playing with it, looking like she hadn't a care in the world. "Oh!" Eris exclaimed, turning to face Harry and swatting him around the head harshly, "That's for almost getting yourself killed. I don't care if you have to leave people to die, but you _have_ to survive, I have too many plans for you to go off and get yourself killed," she smacked him again, "And that's from your Uncle, your name has shown up on Thanatos' list so many times that you're giving him an ulcer."

"Thanatos?" Harry echoed slowly.

"God of Death," Eris murmured, returning her attention to the slinky, "He's the Grim Reaper. He works for Hades, still a lovely guy despite that. He's probably my favourite brother to be honest, Charon has a stick up his ass the size of New York. State," she said absently. "By the way, if you ever meet your Aunt, I want you to promise me you'll turn and run," Eris ordered, pausing again and glancing over at Harry, who felt like his mind had shut down in confusion. "Hemera loves children and is already talking about setting you up with Thalassa."

"What?" Harry blurted, his mind snapping to attention at his mother's words.

"Primordial Sea Goddess," Eris explained, "Your cousin. Aphrodite's mother, but we don't talk about that," she added in a whisper, "It was quite the scandal and Thalassa isn't over it yet."

"She's my cousin?" Harry repeated slowly, "And my Aunt is trying to set me up with her?"

"Hemera's fucking her brother, Aether," Eris corrected with a sneer, "My half-brother through Erebos, and your Uncle."

"I'm so confused," Harry confessed bluntly, "And slightly disgusted."

"Don't worry about it," Eris snorted as she shoved the slinky into Harry's hands, "Divine beings don't have DNA, so there's no side effects of incest as there is with Humans. And it's best for everyone if you only think about your parents, uncles, and aunts as actual family. I mean, technically Zeus is your cousin as well, since he's born of Gaea's line who is my Aunt. It's just easier if you think only of immediate family, it'll save you a lot of migraines too."

As Eris conjured another slinky to play with, Harry found himself asking the question that had been on his mind since he'd 'woken up' in Eris' throne room. "Why am I here?"

"I wanted to spend time with my son," Eris admitted simply, emerald green eyes locking onto Harry's. "I wanted him to know I was proud of him for fighting off a pack of hellhounds like he did, and for using his powers for the first time. And I wanted him to know that if he charges a hellhound with nothing more than a sword he has no training in again, that I'd build him a beautiful bedroom and _lock him in it_ for the rest of eternity."

Cowering slightly under his mother's hard stare, Harry tried to smile sheepishly, only for Eris' eyebrow to rise again and make him flinch. "I'm sorry," he mumbled awkwardly, feeling like it was Mrs Weasley glaring him down for cursing in front of her (Which he blamed the Twins for, since they'd taught him how to curse).

"Don't be. Just don't do it again," Eris ordered with a sniff. "And if you have to do it then at least look awesome while doing it. You were doing so well until you passed out."

Harry stared for a moment, before slowly reminding her that "My ribs were broken."

"Excuses," Eris dismissed with a sniff. "Did you like your gift? I spent years trying to find the best one for you, in the end I decided that with how accident-prone you are, a shield would be best" she explained, making Harry blink in confusion as he tried to follow the sudden change in subject.

"A shield? The wristbands?" Harry realised, looking down at his arms in shock as he finally noticed that the bands were no longer sealed around his wrists. "Uh yeah, they're really nice. Useful," he admitted awkwardly.

"Nice? Useful?" Eris repeated slowly, an expectant look on her face.

He froze for a moment, trying to figure out what he said or did wrong. "They saved Hermione's life?" he offered hesitantly, "I would have lost her if you hadn't helped me." As a satisfied look flashed through Eris' emerald green eyes, Harry realised what he was missing, and awkwardly leaned over to hug his mother.

He was doing it right wasn't he? Eris had faltered before hugging him back. And he _was_ allowed to hug his godly parent right? From what the others had said, Harry got the impression that they barely ever got the chance to see their godly parents, let alone get the opportunity to hug them.

"Thank you," he whispered softly, feeling Eris' arms tightening around him.

"You're welcome baby," Eris murmured back, releasing him slowly, the look on her face saying she wanted to do anything but. "You," she began, her voice sounding pained and her eyes looking torn, looking like she didn't want to have to say what she was about to. "You can't tell them that I'm your mother," she instructed gently, Harry unable to stop himself from leaning into her hand as she raised it to comb it through his hair. "Your friends know you, they know you're not a bad person, and you can tell Chiron since he'd never judge or accuse you."

For a moment, Harry felt like someone had torn the floor out from beneath his feet. For just a brief moment, a part of his brain that belonged to the lonely hated boy he'd been hiding as a child panicked, firmly believing that Eris was ashamed of him and didn't want him to be known.

"I'm not ashamed of you," Eris corrected softly, as if reading his mind. "But other people, the other Gods… they don't know you, they won't see the handsome kind-hearted boy I do, they'll only see _my_ son. They won't trust you, they'll point the blame at you for anything."

Easily snapping himself out of the quick flare of panic, Harry just nodded slowly in response. "I understand," he admittedly, the mature part of him knowing that her words were the truth, that it was better for him to keep his heritage hidden like he did with his parseltongue. "But uh… what about my father?" he asked nervously, pretending not to notice the way Eris had grabbed his hand, and had yet to let it go.

"It's not easy for a universally untrusted Goddess to subtly gather information," Eris admitted, pulling a face. "I'm _trying_ to figure out who your father is, but everyone seems to be looking for some manner of falsehood in my questions. As if they're expecting me to use their answers to start another war. I _was_ planning on claiming you formally at the same time as your father claims you," she explained, her free hand returning to his hair, "Hopefully it would mitigate the effect the knowledge of you being Firstborn would have."

"But uh… but what if they find out?" Harry pressed, unable to hide his relief at her explanation of _why_ she wasn't claiming him. "Seamus and Neville already know, so what if they tell people? What if I have no other choice but to admit it?"

"Then so be it," Eris assured him simply, "You may not realise it, but your friends are loyal. Seamus, Neville, Hermione… they've already 'convinced' the spawn of Notus and Ms Lovegood to keep their silence. They've already sworn to keep your Twice-Blessed nature between them, in fact Seamus and Neville are out telling half-truths to everybody else," she said with a smirk. "They're not mentioning James Potter's love for pranks, and instead are talking about your adventures at Hogwarts, about how brave and kind you are. It's not lying," she added when Harry frowned slightly, "They're only speaking the truth, they're just not speaking _all_ of the truth. Laying false trails to redirect attention towards certain traits, you could say."

"Yes…" she exhaled thoughtfully, "If only you and Ms Granger saw each other that way, she'd make a perfect daughter-in-law. She's absolutely brilliant."

As Harry coughed and choked on his tongue, Eris shook her head and leaned forward to kiss him on the forehead. "Remember that I love you baby. Now. You have places to be, and things to do. So wake up."

As his mother snapped her fingers in his face Harry shot up in bed, panting rapidly as if he'd just ran a marathon while staring down at Hermione, whose bushy hair was tied back in a ponytail while she slept with her head on his leg.

"Harry?" the brown-haired girl mumbled sleepily, yawning as she lifted her head to blink at him. "Where'd you get the slinky from?" she asked tiredly, hiding another yawn behind her hand, as Harry stared down at the ethereal-looking silver slinky in his hands.

"Uh… Eris?" he answered dumbly, "I was talking to her, she told me off for almost dying."

Hermione blinked at him silently for a moment before her eyes widened and she scrambled to her feet, running to the door of the small hospital wing look-alike they were in and tearing the door open. "William! William, Harry's awake!"

Instantly Harry could hear something smashing, as whoever 'William' was reacted to Hermione's shouting by letting out a girly scream. "Somebody go get Chiron!" a male voice ordered, Hermione stepping away from the door in time for a short blond teenager to burst into the room. "Hiya Harry," the pointy nosed boy greeted as he shoved Harry down onto his back again, "How're you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Harry claimed instantly, "I'm a little tired though," he added when both William and Hermione shot him the exact same sceptical 'Really?" look.

"Exhausted you mean?" William asked rhetorically, "Someone bring some Insta-Coffee in here!" he yelled towards the door. "Don't bother lying to me," he suggested as he latched onto Harry's wrist and concentrated, "My Dad's Apollo, not only can I sense when you're lying to me, but I can also sense how healthy your body is when I concentrate."

"That's kinda creepy," Harry murmured without thinking, a blonde girl rushing into the room with a mug in her hands, the familiar red-orange liquid inside sparking little golden sparks. "Is that Pepperup potion?" he blurted.

"Yup, now drink up," William ordered, shoving the mug into his hands, "Thanks Annabeth, is Chiron on his way?"

"Should be, Tracy went to go get him," 'Annabeth' agreed, turning curious grey eyes on Harry for a moment until William bumped her out of the way to get to the table beside the bed.

Feeling a little open under Annabeth's gaze, Harry quickly sculled the mint-tasting potion, feeling the energy rolling through his body and curing the exhausted aching that had settled into his bones. "How long, uh, how long was I out for?" he asked hesitantly as William shoved his hand up his shirt and placed it over his heart, a look of concentration forming on his face again.

"Just a couple of hours," William said dismissively as he checked the watch on his other arm, "It's almost six am, breakfast's just starting here."

"Relax Harry," Hermione interrupted as his eyes widened and he shot up in bed again, "America's five hours behind the UK remember? We've still got loads of time. It's almost eleven at Hogwarts, it's not even lunch time there yet. We don't have to be back at Hogwarts until seven, which is two pm in America," she explained quickly.

Letting out a slow sigh, Harry let William push him back down onto the bed as a brown-haired girl stuck her head in the room, "Chiron's on his way, he's just coming down the stairs now."

"Thanks Tracey," William said with a smile before turning to Annabeth and jerking his thumb towards the door. "Go on, out," he ordered as Annabeth opened to her mouth argue, "This is a private thing, you can get your gossip later."

"I don't gossip," Annabeth corrected, scowling as she crossed her arms.

"No, but your sisters and Malcolm _do_ ," a voice corrected from the doorway, Harry not batting an eye at the sight of the centaur ducking through the door-frame. "If you have to wait, please do so upstairs Ms Chase. Ms Granger will be up soon enough," 'Chiron' instructed, "Mr Solace? How is he?"

"He's fine. He'll probably have to go to sleep early tonight, but other than that, the Skele-Gro Luna bought over last week and the healing the others and I mustered up patched him up completely," William reported as he stood and started towards the door, shooting Hermione a strange look before leaving them with alone with Chiron as he left the room. "And make him eat a proper meal! He's a runt!"

Harry flushed as Chiron chuckled, Hermione nodding in agreement with William's parting statement as she eyed his torso. "It is good to see you up and about again Mr Potter," Chiron said in greeting, "You almost slipped away from us."

Pretending he hadn't heard that last part (Because if he thought about how many times he'd almost died in the last few years, he'd go insane), Harry instead latched onto the beginning. "Does that mean I'm allowed out of the bed?" he asked hopefully, "Oh, and it's good to meet you too Sir," he added when Hermione cleared her throat pointedly.

"I don't believe Mr Solace would have left your side if you weren't," Chiron confirmed knowingly, having to pause as Harry instantly threw back the thin sheet and slid out of the bed, thankful he was still wearing pants. "Now, Misters Finnigan and Longbottom, and Miss Granger of course, have brought some very disturbing news to my attention," he began slowly.

"Sir?" Harry interrupted, standing on the opposite side of the bed to Chiron. "Can I just say something? I didn't know Eris was my mother till two days ago, and in no way am I _anything_ like her. She's the Goddess of Discord, and all I want to do is live a normal life." Taking a deep breath, Harry continued as he realised both Hermione and Chiron were watching him intently. "And yes I _do_ realise that my mother is a dark Goddess, I mean she told me that herself, but neither she nor I want me to follow in her footsteps. I also have no idea who my father is," he added as the thought struck him, "And I'd appreciate it Sir if we could just skip out the 'Twice-Blessed Firstborn of Eris' part when introducing me to people, I'd rather not have people judging me because of my parents."

Finishing his impromptu speech, Harry looked back up to Chiron and Hermione, the former watching him in open amusement while the latter looked completely horrified.

"Mr Chiron was talking about you being entered in the Triwizard Tournament, Harry," Hermione corrected in a whisper, her eyes still wide. "The Goblet of Fire is an ancient Roman 'Proving Chalice'. A God would light it when they sought a Champion, and the Demigod who won the Trials would be granted the 'honour'."

"Indeed," Chiron confirmed slowly as Harry's stomach dropped and he felt his face heating up, realising he'd _already_ broken his promise to his mother. "I'm afraid your year at Hogwarts is going to be filled with deadly monsters and challenges," the centaur apologized. "This 'Tournament' is nothing to laugh about," he added stiffly as Harry snorted.

"Sir," Hermione interrupted, "I think what Harry means by that is that _every_ year since we've started Hogwarts has been filled with deadly monsters and challenges," she translated, making Harry nod guiltily.

"Sorry Sir," Harry apologized quickly, absently fidgeting with the slinky he was still holding, not wanting to offend one of the only people that could (And would) help him. "But Hermione's right, I've almost died every year I've been at Hogwarts."

This made Chiron's eyebrows shoot up, "What _has_ Albus being doing with that school that's made it so dangerous?" the centaur asked himself with a frown.

"You know Professor Dumbledore?" Hermione asked curiously, even Harry watching Chiron for the answer.

"Albus is one of the oldest Demigods still living. One of the oldest Demigods _naturally_ still living, I should say," Chiron corrected, apparently not noticing the way both Harry's and Hermione's jaws had dropped. "He's also one of the strongest Sorcerers that have passed through these walls," the centaur continued thoughtfully, "Ms Lovegood is powerful, there's no doubt of that, but she lacks his sheer ingenuity."

"Professor Dumbledore is a Demigod?" Hermione squeaked out as Harry stood there stupidly, "As in _Professor Dumbledore?_ "

"I didn't feel anything though," Harry denied softly, turning to frown at Hermione and feeling the soft buzzing in his head that came with meeting her eyes. "I can sense Demigods, I've been able to ever since I met Mum. But I didn't feel anything when I saw the Headmaster," he clarified.

Chiron nodded and smiled gently, "Albus's divine abilities were never the strongest, but he made up for that with his magic. In fact I believe he invented the spell magical Demigods use to cloak their divine half from Wizarding magic," he added, "A spell that'll be taught to you during your time here. I believe most of the magical Demigods still living in Britain use the spell to escape detection."

"Sir? Why wouldn't Professor Dumbledore say anything if he was a Demigod too? We don't know the spell, so he had to have known we were Demigods too," Hermione questioned curiously.

"Albus and a close… friend… of his, had a falling out," Chiron replied hesitantly. "Albus has never forgiven himself for what happened, for what he was forced to do. He stopped spending as much time at the Camp as he used to, and over time we saw him less and less until he just stopped coming back. The guilt was eating at him, it would have hurt to be here and see only reminders of their time together."

"But enough about that," he declared, clapping his hands together as he shook his head, chasing the haunted look in his eyes away. "If you want to know more then you must ask Albus himself. Until then however, it is time to talk about your parents," he decided, fixing Harry with a curious look. "Before we begin however I must say, I never thought I'd ever see a child of Eris, let alone a Twice-Blessed one."

As Harry paled, Chiron raised his hand in a calming gesture. "Relax Mr Potter, Ms Granger has already explained your desire to remain 'off the radar' as it were, and I understand completely. The only ones who will be aware of your true heritage, are myself and Mr D, who has agreed not to say anything, and you will not be made to confess anything until you are formally claimed" he explained slowly, making Harry relax against his will.

"Now, we'll see if we can hurry this along shall we?" Chiron asked as he turned and gestured for them to follow him. "Ms Granger has already requested permission to leave early, so the sooner we can get you registered Mr Potter, the sooner you can learn how to Mist."

"Misting is the first thing any magical Demigod is taught," Hermione whispered from beside him as they moved upstairs, "So we can escape from the Ministry if they discover us. Neville was trying to show me how to do it earlier, but I'm not very good at it, I only got it to work once, and that was with him guiding me."

Nodding slowly, Harry hid his grimace as he realised that if Hermione couldn't do it, then what chance did he have? He still wanted to try though, the ability to teleport from Hogwarts to the Camp in only two jumps was too useful to ignore. It'd also mean he and Hermione wouldn't have to bug Seamus or Neville to teleport them over.

"Why are we leaving early?" he asked her curiously as they were led into a small office, sitting at the desk as Chiron started going through some files.

"We're not. I am," Hermione corrected quietly. "Uh… Neville's going to take me to Diagon Alley when we leave, so we can take the Knight Bus to my house. I mentioned that I didn't want to send them a letter asking about all this, and he offered to take me to ask them in person. But uh… you can come with me if you want?" she asked slowly, a hopeful look on her face, "I know my parents would love to meet you."

As Hermione wiped at her eyes, Harry realised how hard it must be for Hermione. At least he had no parents to feel 'betrayed' by, his parents were either dead or actually a Goddess in disguise. But Hermione was raised by her parents, she grew up thinking that they were her birth parents, and now she's finding out the opposite. It made sense for her to want to ask in person, it wasn't something Harry could imagine putting in a letter.

"I'll go with you," Harry promised instantly, making Hermione beam at him thankfully as Chiron cleared his throat to get their attention.

"You'll need to fill these out, you two," Chiron explained as he placed the forms in front of them, handing them muggle pens as well. "If you do not know who your godly parent is, then leave it blank. You do the same as well, Mr Potter, but put Eris' mortal name under the heading of 'Mortal Parent'."

"How did-?" Hermione began curiously, as Harry started filling in the form obediently.

"How did I know Eris took the form of a mortal?" Chiron interrupted knowingly, "Because if Eris had been in her natural form, then Mr Potter here would be a God, not a Mortal."

"I guess that makes sense," Hermione admitted hesitantly.

Harry faltered as Chiron chuckled, a strange feeling prickling at the back of his neck. "Don't expect the world of the Gods to make much sense at first," he suggested as Harry twitched, "There are a very different set of rules than those you're used to."

"I can't wait to learn more, I always loved the classical history books back at my old school, they were more believable heroes I gue- Harry?" Hermione blurted as Harry swatted at something he could feel near his ear.

Twisting around to stare at the space behind him, Harry's eyes narrowed as he stood, his fingers twitching towards his wand cautiously. "Did you feel that?" he asked Hermione slowly, trusting her instincts almost as much as his own.

"No," Hermione admitted slowly, pulling her wand and thrusting it towards the door before Harry could react. He felt a quick surge of pride as the door slammed shut, the knowledge that Hermione trusted his instincts warming his chest.

Chiron sighed from behind them, "Ms Chase. If you would remove your cap?" he ordered expectantly. "You won't need it tonight, when you're cleaning the dishes in the kitchens."

As a childish giggle filled the air, Harry slumped back down in his chair. "Oh, not you again," he groaned out beneath his breath, releasing his grip on his wand as he rubbed his temples.

"Harry?"

"Mr Potter?"

"Well?" Harry demanded, ignoring their questions as he looked around the room. "Come on. Show yourself," he ordered, watching as a pair of red eyes peeked out at him from behind a bust of a torso, a set of leather chest armour sitting on it with a bow attached.

With another giggle, the rest of the Makhai's body faded into view, her black-green wings spreading out and reaching forward to brush the tips of her feathers against his face. Twitching at the ticklish feeling, Harry reached up to swat the wings away, the Makhai quickly tucking them behind herself with a wide grin.

"Harry?" Hermione repeated, "What… what are you looking at?"

"The Makhai," Harry dismissed with a scowl in the sniggering woman's direction. "She keeps showing up to harass me at Hogwarts, she's the reason my hair turned Slytherin green this morning," he added.

"The Makhai?" Hermione echoed, sounding confused as he glanced over at her, finding her squinting at the winged woman with a lost expression. "There's nothing there, Harry."

"The Makhai are children of Eris," Chiron murmured, the centaur moving around the desk to approach his armour. "I may not be able to see you properly," he said slowly, pointing at the Makhai, "But I can see a shimmer, and that'll all I need. If you go around starting any fights, I _will_ find and banish you from the Camp grounds."

"Children of Eris? I thought Harry was Firstborn?" Hermione asked as the Makhai stuck her tongue out at Chiron.

"I am," Harry confirmed, Chiron closing his mouth with an amused expression as he allowed him to answer. "The Makhai aren't physical, they're just spirits, shards of Eris' power. They're not blood and flesh like I am. And _you_ , out," he ordered the Makhai, pointing at the door, "Go. Shoo."

"It's alright Mr Potter," Chiron said quickly, "She can stay as long as she doesn't spread chaos around the Camp. And by chaos I mean no starting fights," he added with a glance in the pouting Makhai's direction. "Feel free to prank the Demigods, it keeps them on their toes," he explained to the suddenly grinning Makhai.

Before Harry could react, the Makhai had launched itself from behind the bust to press a kiss to his cheek, flying straight through the closed door seconds later.

Chiron let out a sigh as he returned to the other side of his desk, "Why do I feel like I've just made a terrible mistake?"

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

A throat cleared softly, making Albus pause in his work and glance up at the small framed painting of Godric Gryffindor besides his desk.

"Minerva's coming," the Founder of Gryffindor House said simply, a faint smile on his face that Albus had only seen in relation to Minerva. "And so is Fudge and that awful toad," the man added with a grimace.

When a knock sounded on the door mere seconds later, Albus set down his quill and nodded to Godric in thanks, leaning back in his chair with a called out "Come in Minerva! Cornelius!"

As the door opened, Albus quickly steeled himself for the coming talk. If Fudge and that loathsome Umbridge were here, then he knew for certain that he would _not_ enjoy this. If he were allowed to drink, then it would only take just one meeting with them to make him develop another addiction, as it were he was only allowed his beloved lemon drops as a reminder of the last time he started drinking.

(And what a wonderful reminder they were, he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol since beating his addiction all those years ago)

"ALBUS!"

(Although he _definitely_ had reason to be tempted)

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" Cornelius Fudge demanded angrily as he finished his dramatic storm-in right in front of Albus' desk.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean," Albus half-lied, having a good idea of what the Minister was talking about, but enjoying the incredulous look of shock on the man's red face.

"HARRY POTTER! I MEAN HARRY POTTER!" Cornelius yelled, waving his arms about wildly with a sneering Minerva and a sneering Umbridge behind him. (Albus was amused to note that Minerva's sneer was in fact directed towards Cornelius and Umbridge, the latter of which being too busy sneering at Albus to notice). "IN THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT! AND RUNNING AWAY FROM HOGWARTS!"

"I _may_ be one hundred and thirteen years old Cornelius, but I think you'll find my hearing is as young as my students," Albus interrupted coldly as the Minister opened his mouth to continue yelling. "And as for Mr Potter, Minerva as his Head of House has taken over responsibility for him during the Tournament to prevent favouritism on my part, so any inquiries regarding him must be directed to her."

"And I assure you," Minerva added snappishly as she moved around the desk to stand beside Albus, making him smile gently at her. "That Mr Potter has _not_ run away from Hogwarts. This castle is his home, and he'll not leave it without a fight. I do not know where you got that completely ridiculous idea, but it is nothing more than a lie."

"Then you'll have no problems with bringing Mr Potter up to talk to us will you?" Umbridge asked sweetly, her voice dripping with more sugar than one of Albus' jumbo bags of lemon drops. (Which admittedly wasn't much, Albus wasn't a young man anymore, he had to watch his figure these days).

"I'm sure Mr Potter would welcome the opportunity to see what the Ministry plans to do about this attempt on his life," Minerva countered instantly, Albus content to sit back and allow his Deputy to handle this discussion. "However you'll have to come back at another time Minister, as he's not currently within the castle."

Albus' attention snapped back to Minerva suddenly, a flicker of concern flooding his chest at her words. It was one thing, (A regrettable thing too) that Harry had gone to Gringotts the day before, but to be leaving Hogwarts again so quickly wasn't safe at all. He'd felt the power Harry had just that morning, when the young man had reacted violently to his request, so for him to be leaving Hogwarts again so soon was truly a bad idea.

If _Albus_ could feel Harry's divine aura (Which was a concerning fact on it's own, the boy was a lot more powerful than he'd first believed), then mythos would be all over him like a moth to a flame.

"So he _has_ run away then!" Cornelius exclaimed, both victoriously and nervously.

"Of _course_ he hasn't," Minerva spat, making the Minister flinch back fearfully, "He and his Magical Council asked for and received day passes from myself, for the purpose of leaving the castle to buy some instructional books. It's only logical for him to want some advanced training. He was illegally forced into a deadly Tournament against three people much older and knowledgeable than himself after all," the elderly Witch added slowly, Albus only barely able to pick up the sarcasm in her voice. "And on that note, _Minister_ , what exactly will the Ministry being doing about that?" she asked dangerously, "I'm sure you've put your best Aurors on the case haven't you?"

"What? Wha- of course I have!" Cornelius spluttered, Minerva's glare no doubt inducing a flashback of his days as a student. "I gave the order the moment I discovered the truth."

"Wonderful!" Albus exclaimed, clapping his hands together to disguise the racing of his mind, as he altered his plans to include the Ministry Aurors investigating and Mr Potter's so-called 'Magical Council'. "Now we have that nasty business out of the way, we can get to the important part of this meeting. Lemon drop anyone?"


	9. Chapter 9

"The Olympians… it's been centuries and I still don't know how best to explain them. The Olympians are a council, but they're more than that, they're an ideal as well."

"The fourteen of them are more than just Gods," Chiron explained softly, his eyes unfocused as they stared at something behind Harry and Hermione. "It's not the easiest thing to explain, the Olympians don't just represent their domains, but they represent civilization as well. That's why America is the great 'superpower' of this age, because Olympus and the Olympians are here. And Olympus and the Olympians are only here because America is the superpower of this age… the heart of the western civilization."

"Imagine a fire," Chiron continued, speaking more to Hermione than Harry, the bushy-haired girl absorbing his words like a sponge did water. "The Olympians are connected to this flame, when they overthrew the Titans and brought about peace and a new age for mankind, they sparked the flame's ignition among the Greeks. As the Greek culture grew and flourished, so did the Gods, and as the Gods flourished so did the Greeks. It became a cyclical relationship. Eventually the flame… it changed… it became this living _force_. The embodiment of both humanities' collective spirit, and their civilization."

"And this 'flame'," Harry interrupted as Chiron paused to take a sip of some water, "It's in America now?"

"For now, yes," the centaur confirmed, "It remained in Greece for centuries, before moving to Rome, as that became the new centre of the western civilization. From there it continued moving through Europe. Germany, France, Spain, even Great Britain," he explained slowly, "And now it has settled in America, New York in fact. The current incarnation of Olympus is in New York, the Empire State Building to be precise."

"And the Olympians? Have they changed?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Yes… and no," Chiron said hesitantly. "Have they changed with the times? Yes they have. The King of the Gods is rather fond of pin-wheel suits. Hermes, the God of Messengers, created the internet. But have the Olympians themselves changed? No, they have not. They remain the same Gods they were back then, their personalities are largely the same, and they remain the Gods of their respective domains without change."

"Now, I believe I promised you both a tour of the Camp," Chiron declared, "Unless you have any questions?"

"Here we go," Harry murmured instantly as Hermione perked up.

"Why are there so many magical Demigods?" she questioned, sending a scowl in Harry's direction as she tried to ignore his comment. "Everyone's told me that Demigods are rare, being less than a thousand of us when there are billions of humans. But there are at least _ten_ Demigods at Hogwarts alone."

"Some Gods tend to favour the magicals," Chiron explained simply, "Many of what you call 'Pure-bloods' still worship the Gods behind closed doors, despite the influence of the Muggleborn claiming heresy."

"What do you mean by 'heresy'?" Hermione asked automatically.

"Many religious muggleborn tried to 'wage war' on the pure-blood's beliefs, refusing to acknowledge the existence of the Gods in favour of pushing their own religion upon them," Chiron said with a scowl on his face. "This is quite the issue in America," he confessed darkly, "With America carrying the flame of Olympus, many religious muggleborn tend to hunt Demigods as 'Dark creatures' despite the American Ministry's laws against it."

"Wait, that's allowed?" Hermione demanded, Harry leaning away from her at the look of anger on her face.

"Of course it's not," Chiron corrected snappishly, making Hermione shrink back in her own chair in guilt. "In Europe you have 'Muggle baiting' do you not? In America we have 'Pagan Hunting', where magicals hunt down Demigods and execute them. The Ministry has strict repercussions against those who practice it, and the Gods are ten times more _deadly_ should they become aware of it."

"But anyway," Chiron continued, clearing his throat and forcing the dark look from his eyes, "There are many magical Demigods because the Gods favour those who worship them. The Gods are more likely to choose to woo a magical that worships them over a mortal that doesn't know of their existence."

"Maybe we should start that tour now?" Harry suggested as Hermione opened her mouth again. "You could always look through the library we passed through later," he pointed out when she glared, "I'd rather get the tour done so we can begin training faster."

He could see the battle on Hermione's face as her desire for knowledge warred against his logic. "Fine," she agreed sadly, "Would I be allowed to look through the library later Professor?" she asked Chiron hopefully, "Or is it restricted?"

"Just 'Chiron', Ms. Granger," Chiron corrected, waving his hand towards the wall of bookshelves. ""All restricted books are either here or in Mr D's office. The main library is open to all, and as long as you don't break curfew to use it, you're welcome to read all the books you desire."

The" Fine" Hermione let out, sounded hard-done by and full of suffering, as if she was making the greatest sacrifice by agreeing to wait. "Let's get this tour started then."

"Eager aren't we?" Chiron chuckled as he led them out of his office, "Come. Let us visit the cabins first."

Shrugging the centaur's words off, Harry didn't comment on the 'cabin' idea. He'd lived in a cupboard beneath the stairs for nine years, so as long as he was fed properly then he'd be able to survive sleeping in a cabin, and living in the Gryffindor dormitory meant he'd be able to share with other people.

"Cabins? How many cabins are there?" Hermione questioned as they walked along the dirt path towards the buildings Harry could see in the distance, "Seamus implied there were _at least_ around a hundred demigods here."

"During the summer break, perhaps, but not during the school year. And there are twelve cabins in all," Chiron replied slowly. "But Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, had a hand in building this Camp. Not only did she create powerful wards that would repel all but the strongest monsters, but she also enchanted the cabins themselves with what I believe magicals call 'Wizard Space'."

"So the cabins are larger on in the inside?" Hermione asked rhetorically, Harry catching sight of the look of puzzled thoughtfulness on her face. "And did Hecate _create_ magic? Or is she just the Goddess of it?"

"Indeed. Hecate was the one to bless demigods with the power of magic, making them what we call 'Sorcerers'. Eventually the magic in their blood was watered down enough that it changed to wizardry, creating a new form of magic more easily accessible to mortals," Chiron agreed approvingly, directing the same proud smile that McGonagall favoured at Hermione.

"Does that make her our Patron?" Harry blurted, "Oh er, Matron? Neville said that the Longbottoms have always worshipped Zeus and Hecate as their Patrons, since the first Longbottom was a magical Demigod of Zeus," he explained slowly. "So does that mean that our Patrons are Hecate and whoever our Godly parent is?"

"Well I know Mr Longbottom sacrifices to Hecate every night," Chiron confirmed, as they slowed to a stop at the base of the U-shaped row of cabins, "Mr Finnigan however doesn't. It is a choice that one must make on their own, Hecate would not take your magic away if you do not worship her."

"I don't _have_ to make sacrifices do I?" Hermione asked weakly, cutting Chiron off as he went to speak again. "It's just I'm… and the bible says…"

"I want to make one thing clear, Ms Granger," Chiron said gently as Hermione trailed off, "There are the Gods, and then there is _the_ God. I will not lie to you, and say that the bible is full of truths, it was written by man after all. One thing that we know for certain, is that what we call 'Chaos' is the First of all the Deities and the creator of All". Chiron paused and frowned slightly, shrugging as he returned his gaze to Hermione's blank face, "I personally see no point in worshipping Chaos myself," he admitted slowly, "He may be the creator, but he plays little part in our affairs. The God _s_ however, both Olympian and Roman, are merely the embodiments of their domains, they are not omnipotent nor omniscient, whether they pretend to be or not. While there is only one, 'Supreme Deity' as one could call him, there _are_ numerous Gods".

Hermione nodded slowly, her face still closed off as Harry watched thoughts flashing through her eyes. "I _will_ say this though Ms Granger," Chiron added warningly, "While we do not deny anyone the right to worship who they wish, it would be appreciated if you were to keep your personal beliefs quiet. I do not mean you must hide them," he corrected quickly as anger flashed across Hermione's face, "Merely that you do not wander around claiming there is only One. There are too many among our number that have faced Hunters that proclaim the same, and such claims will not do much for your safety. They will not treat you differently for following the Christian beliefs as long as you are willing to accept that like the Greek mythology and legends, the bible has been altered from telling to telling. And _that_ makes all the difference".

"I get it," Hermione interrupted as Chiron stopped to take a breath, "I don't know what to say yet, I have a lot to think about, but I understand".

A sad smile graced Chiron's face, and he reached out to gently brush a lock of hair from Hermione's face. "You will never understand, Ms Granger," he denied quietly, "And I doubt anyone ever will. All we _can_ do, is to continue on our way, live our lives the best we can".

As Hermione smiled awkwardly up at Chiron, Harry felt an awkward feeling settling on his shoulders, as if he were intruding on a personal moment for Hermione. Aside from being told that he was an abomination in the eyes of God and that he should have been burned at the stake like the witches of Salem by his relatives (Which was a new thing actually), Harry had never really thought about religion before. And well admittedly he wasn't going to start now, he may make sacrifices to his parents and Hecate, but he didn't know if he'd ever be able to _believe_ , which seemed to be the key point in all religions.

"How about we go meet some of the others?" Chiron offered suddenly, his distraction technique working as Hermione's face calmed and she nodded eagerly, Harry still seeing that she was deep in thought in some corner aspect of her mind. "Now, we _should_ visit each cabin individually while the other campers are finishing breakfast, like we would if you were normal campers, but in our current situation-" at this his eyes flicked to Harry "- it might be best to skip that part".

"Please," Hermione blurted, shaking her head as Chiron glanced at her, "Can we not skip it?"

"I uh, I kind of want to just be a normal camper," Harry confessed as Chiron looked to him for his opinion. "If everyone else does the tour, then… I want it too".

Understanding flashed through Chiron's eyes for a brief second before he was nodding suddenly and starting off at a brisk wal- er- trot. "This!" he declared as they approached the biggest cabin that was made of a pure white marble, "Is Zeus' cabin. This is where all the Sons and Daughters of Zeus sleep… not that there _are_ any anymore," he added awkwardly, "The children of the Big Three, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, are too powerful. In fact, I'm sure you've heard of a massive war, led by two sons of Hades against the rest of the worlds?" he pressed slowly.

"I… want to say World War Two?" Hermione questioned uncertainly, a frown tugging at her mouth. "Adolf Hitler and Gellert Grindelwald?"

"Excellent Ms Granger," Chiron praised, "The three brothers swore an oath to never have children again, since they caused too much death and destruction. And the Gods were arguing about bringing that law into play after the events of the American Civil War. The Roman Demigods supported slavery, with it being a large part of their culture, while the Greeks were against it," he added simply. "And if the army had a child of one of the Big Three in it, then they were nearly impossible to defeat without another one there to battle them".

"Did two Sons of Zeus fight?" Harry asked before he could stop himself, "Like a Son of Zeus and a Son of Jupiter? Luna said they were both 'two sides of the same coin'".

"Ms Lovegood has a way of seeing things that most of us could only dream of having," Chiron said slowly as he glanced around cautiously. "She is, of course, correct. Although I must ask that you keep quiet on the topic of the Romans here," he reminded, making Harry flinch guiltily.

"Now. This cabin," Chiron continued as if he'd never been stopped, trotting over to the slimmer version of Zeus' cabin. "This cabin belongs to Hera, the Bride of Zeus and Goddess of Marriage. It is an honorary cabin however, as the Goddess of Marriage would never cheat on her husband. She has a habit of making the lives of any of Zeus' children terrible however, she doesn't deal with jealousy well I'm afraid".

Chiron then moved passed the Zeus cabin onto a rather short, rough-looking grey cabin, the giant bronze trident over the door making it obvious who the cabin belonged to. "The Poseidon cabin?" Harry asked as they came to a halt, "For the God of the Sea?" It _did_ kind of look 'watery' when he narrowed his eyes, Harry guessed.

"Indeed, Mr Potter," Chiron confirmed, "Like his brothers, Poseidon swore an oath stating he'd never have another child," the centaur's tone of voice making Harry falter for a moment, watching as Chiron's eyes unfocused and went blank for a moment, as if he had just stopped thinking before snapping back to life with a content expression. "Right, let's move on," he declared, moving across the field towards the cabin opposite the Poseidon cabin instead of just moving to the cabin to next to it.

Harry instantly sought out Hermione's eyes, his best friend automatically confirming what he was thinking. Apparently Poseidon had been a little 'naughty', and had broken his oath. And Chiron was in on it. Shaking his head to clear it, Harry sent Hermione what he hoped was a look that said 'ABORT!', not wanting to accidentally piss off one of the 'Big Three' by looking into the matter further.

Dear Merlin… it seemed Seamus was right about saying he was drawn to adventure and chaos.

After exchanging a look with Hermione, who seemed to be telling him to 'stay out of trouble' with her eyes, they hurried after Chiron who hadn't noticed their little conversation.

Taking a single look at the next cabin, Harry knew that it was obviously Demeter's cabin. It basically screamed 'Neville' to him, and being her son, it was likely that his mother's cabin was the one made _entirely out of plants_.

"Demeter cabin," Chiron offered conversationally. "Goddess of the Harvest and Seasons. Young Mr Longbottom is her only son at the moment, the rest of his siblings are female. You'll find that a lot with the Gods, male Gods tend to have male sons, and female Goddesses tend to have female so- Gods usually have sons, Goddesses have daughters. It's not a rule obviously," he explained, clearly sounding a little embarrassed, "But it does tend to be how things end up".

The next cabin was downright intimidating, a boar's head mounted over the door of the scruffily painted red cabin, barbed wire curling around the roof and walls. "Ares cabin," Chiron said simply as they approached, "For the children of the God of War. Don't touch the walls, they'll see that as a declaration of war and-" Chiron froze and his eyes narrowed at the cabin, "If they've set up the landmines again, I swear by my father they'll be cleaning the toilets with their bare hands".

"Landmines?" Hermione asked nervously, eyeing the ground around their feet with an expression that instantly made Harry wish he'd brought his broom.

"Let's move along shall we?" Chiron suggested, backing away from the cabin with a suspicious look on his face. "Ah! Athena's cabin!" he exclaimed as they walked towards another grey-coloured cabin, this one bearing an owl over the door and a small shed-like attachment on its side. "Since you've no doubt noticed the trend, I doubt I need to say that this is where the children of Athena live".

"Whose cabin's that?" Hermione asked, not noticing Chiron's expectant look between her and the cabin, almost as if he was saying 'Well? Go ahead'.

"That cabin belongs to Artemis," Chiron admitted, looking concerned for a moment before he brushed it off. "But it's-"

"Empty?" Hermione interrupted curiously, "But if Athena has children despite being a virgin Goddess, then why doesn't Artemis?"

"Because Athena is still a virgin," Chiron corrected, Harry feeling his ears heating up at the talk of sex. (He could barely accept that his best friend was developing breasts, he was miles behind Seamus who was already drooling over anything with a pair of legs). "Her children are born of a melding of the minds, not of physical intercourse".

"So she has children but still keeps her oath?" Hermione murmured to herself, "No wonder she's the Goddess of Wisdom".

If Harry was anyone else, he wouldn't have heard the truth behind Hermione's words. If he was anyone else, he wouldn't have seen the look Hermione shot the cabin. While Hermione didn't truly believe in the Gods yet, she still knew what she wanted. And to be the daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom would mean she'd have people who were just as intelligent as her to be with.

"You have no idea the truth your words carry," Chiron mused thoughtfully, still looking between Hermione and the Athena cabin.

"Does Artemis have children? In a way similar to Athena?" Hermione asked slowly, Harry frowning slightly at the way Hermione kept coming back to Artemis.

"They... are not of her blood," Chiron admitted hesitantly, "But the Hunters of Artemis are her children in spirit, in soul. If you wish, Ms Granger, I will ask Ms Chase to explain everything about our world to you after the tour. I believe the two of you will get along swimmingly".

Before Hermione could answer, Chiron was approaching the Athena cabin and knocking on the door, a tall black-haired teenager opening it and stepping aside to let the centaur in.

"Hermione?" Harry whispered as the door shut behind Chiron and left them standing there alone. "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione questioned, pretending not to know what he meant.

"What's up with this Artemis thing?" he pressed, reaching out to grasp her elbow as she turned away from him.

Hermione's face went blank for a moment, the girl looking like she was just going to brush him off a bit. "I… I _may_ have looked up to Artemis a bit," she admitted softly, "When I was younger I read about her, I thought she was so strong. She stood up for herself, she didn't need anyone else".

"You're not going to turn all 'Hunter of Artemis' on me are you? 'Cos from what I remember Artemis didn't exactly like men," Harry muttered as he pulled her into a one-armed hug.

"I was _seven_ Harry," Hermione countered, slapping at his chest in annoyance. "And it was only was for a week, the next week I wanted to be like Margaret Thatcher".

"When I was seven I wanted to be a bird," Harry said slowly, "I always thought that being able to fly would be so freeing," he confessed as he remembered the feeling he'd felt when he first flew on a broom.

Hermione rolled her eyes at his comment, a fond look on her face as she opened her mouth to speak, only for a loud roar to interrupt her. Spinning around instantly, his hand dropping to the wand in his pocket, Harry's jaw fell open as he took in the sight in front of them.

Two boys were swinging at each other wildly, one armed with a toilet brush and the other with a back scratcher, both of their heads covered in bright pink hair as they fought each other. Shouting something in a language that pulled at Harry's memory, he stared in horror as they fought with their improvised weapons, soaking wet and entirely butt naked.

His hand rising up to cover Hermione's eyes before he could stop it, Harry turned her around and ignored the way she scoffed at his behaviour. Keeping his own eyes on the boy's hair, he bit back a groan as a black and green winged being flew into sight, her giggles echoing across the field to him.

Well that explained their hair colours then… The Makhai noticed Harry suddenly, letting out a happy cry and shooting across the field to cling to him, looking between the boys and him with a proud preening expression on her face.

"She didn't hesitate to get started did she?" Chiron's voice asked from behind them, making them both jump in fright, the Makhai half-cowering behind Harry now. "She was certainly quick to scope out the competition and bring them down a peg. Do not worry little one, when I said 'no fights', I meant no intentionally starting fights," he clarified for the Makhai, "You are not responsible for this, and you are especially not responsible for anything the Stoll brothers do".

To the Makhai this seemed to be a 'go ahead' to cause more chaos, as she giggled before launching herself away and through the wall of the Athena cabin. "Oh dear," Chiron exhaled, staring after her, "That's not going to end well".

"CONNOR BARNABAS AND TRAVIS LUCY!" a voice roared out, "WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

All three of them turned back to face the fighting boys, Hermione swatting away Harry's hand as he raised it to cover her eyes. He saw her as his sister, and he didn't want her to see those two guys' junk just flopping around. He'd already looked up a couple of painful spells to cast on the boys that showed her any form of unwanted interest. (And if Hermione hadn't done the same to ward off the girls interested in the Boy-Who-Lived, then he'd dye his own hair pink)

"My middle name isn't Barnabas!" one of the boys yelped indignantly, neither of them apparently caring about their nakedness as they stood in front of the gathered demigods. "Trav's _is_ Lucy though," he added innocently, making the other boy squawk in disagreement as the tall blonde man stared them both down.

"That is Luke Castellan," Chiron introduced slowly, "Counsellor for Hermes cabin, and the male Camp Leader. He's also one of the only ones who can control his brothers. He'll be your Counsellor until you're claimed by your parent," at this Chiron shot the Athena cabin another pointed look (That Harry was beginning to believe were pointless). "As the God of Travellers, Hermes takes all the unclaimed demigods in his cabin," he explained, Harry watching as Luke dragged the two still naked Stolls into a run-down wooden looking cabin by their bright pink hair.

As the crowd began to disperse, Chiron let out a quiet humming noise. "Perhaps this tour should be continued another time?" he suggested simply as they found themselves becoming the new centre of attention. "You two need to learn how to Mist if you are to return here. Since you're not full-time campers, the cabins themselves are of little importance to you, and your training takes top priority. Especially yours, Mr Potter".

Ignoring the curious looks being sent their way by the other campers, Harry just nodded and turned to face the centaur. "Since you've decided to keep your heritage a secret, swordsmanship and other weapons aren't as important to us at the moment," Chiron continued, "Fitness based exercises however, strength, speed, your reflexes. They're going to be your focus at the moment. And magic of course, once your core finishes developing properly".

"What about normal magic though?" Hermione asked seriously, reminding Harry of the way she had acted when arranging his 'training schedule', "Can we still practice wizarding magic?"

"Of course you could," Chiron confirmed, "I was under the impression that you were already doing so?" he asked, glancing between them with a raised eyebrow. "The Camp also has a place for magicals to train in, from what I remember of Albus' own days here, it's not superior to the facilities Hogwarts has, but it is sufficient enough for days you wish to train here".

"But before that, you two need to be taught how to tap into the mist to teleport," the centaur declared, clapping his hands together and starting off towards the Big House. "As I said earlier, you need to be able to mist in order to escape anyone who would do you harm, since misting can take you through all but the strongest wards. Bar those of the Camp of course, the closest you can come is the middle of the forest".

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"Oh Merlin, I'm going to be sick".

Reaching out without thinking, Harry turned Hermione around so she wasn't aiming at him anymore. "Not on me please," he muttered, hand pressed his own stomach as he tried to keep down his own lunch (They had been given a bowl of fruit, which had been tastier and healthier than anything Hogwarts served).

"It gets better?" Neville offered with a small smile, "You're not children of Demeter, so it's going to be really uncomfortable. Other demigods say it gets better with time though, although since you'll learn how to Mist yourselves I guess you'll never need to get used to it," he added thoughtfully.

Nodding to himself as he straightened up, Harry jerked back as a swirl of fiery red-orange smoke appeared, forming into Seamus as a plume of smoke all colours of the rainbow turned into Luna.

"You've only around an hour," Seamus began instantly as Luna smiled happily at Harry before vanishing in another plume of smoke. "I'll cover for you the best that I can, but you need to be careful, if you're seen in Diagon Alley then it'll have been for nothing".

Harry just nodded again, hand drifting to the pocket his invisibility cloak was hidden in. He'd be able to just walk through Diagon Alley without any issues, the only problem would keeping the Knight Bus people quiet, since he'd have to take his cloak off to use the bus.

"We'll be back in time," Neville assured their dorm-mate, "I'll be able to Mist them both to Hogwarts from London".

Seamus nodded in approval before faltering, "You got their swords?" he asked slowly.

"Naturally," Neville confirmed, making Seamus nod again and vanish in another swirl of fiery smoke. "I totally forgot your swords," the timid boy confessed almost instantly, looking between them sheepishly, "Please don't tell him".

"You have our word," Harry promised him instantly, grinning at his friend as Neville blushed.

"Right, well…," the Son of Demeter murmured uncomfortably, "Let's get started shall we?"

As Neville started towards the door of the room they'd appeared in, Harry reached out to catch Hermione's elbow. "Are you okay?" he whispered as she paused and glanced back at him, "You've been quiet all day".

"I'll be fine, Harry" Hermione dismissed quietly, smiling softly at him when he didn't release her elbow, "I've just been thinking about what Chiron said, about God and Chaos being the same person. It's not something I'm going to decide on overnight".

"I guess not," Harry agreed as he caught sight of Neville waiting outside to give them some space. "I mean, I never really believed in that nonsense in the first place, but I can't imagine how it must be for you".

Hermione suddenly tore away from him, trying to hide a scowl as she smoothed down her shirt. "Well then I trust you'll stay out of it and let _me_ deal with my own _nonsense_ personally," she spat, making Harry start kicking himself for sticking his foot in his mouth.

"I didn't mean it like that," he blurted as Hermione started towards the door, "I'm sorry".

"I know," Hermione confessed as she froze in place, "I'm just… can you let me deal with this? On my own?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course," Harry confirmed instantly, "I'll be here if you need me".

When Hermione smiled thankfully at him, and stepped back to hug him gently, Harry didn't hesitate to hug her back.

"So, let's go meet the Mister and Missus shall we?" he asked innocently, letting out a startled grunt as Hermione mock-punched him in the stomach.


	10. Chapter 10

"Mr Potter? Stay behind please".

Faltering, already halfway risen out of his seat, Harry exchanged a confused look with Hermione before slowly lowering himself back down. Packing his things up patiently as the rest of his Transfiguration class left the room, he ignored the passing Ron's glare and instead focused on the feeling of Hermione sitting beside him, her warmth comforting him and pushing the pain at Ron's rejection down.

Peeking over at Hermione from the corner of his eye, Harry couldn't help but want to poke at her, to question how she was dealing with what her parents had told them last night. That they'd known all along that Hermione was a demigod, that her father (Who they hadn't actually mentioned by name, they'd sworn to let Him approach her apparently) had called in a favour with Hecate to get them protected from monsters and the like, having openly told Hermione's parents that he had _big_ plans for her in the future.

Every time Harry opened his mouth to ask however, Hermione shot him a _look_. One that told him that she knew exactly what he was thinking, and that if he wanted his manhood to remain where it was then he better stop asking.

The look hadn't told him that last part though, Hermione had said it to his face when he'd asked that morning… she'd been very convincing.

"Mr Potter," Professor McGonagall's voice began, pulling him from his thoughts and making him look up at the ageing professor. "I trust that you found everything you needed to yesterday?" she questioned slowly, "You both spent most of last night's feast deep in thought," she explained, Harry pausing at what he could had _sworn_ was a hint of concern in her voice.

"I… no," Harry confessed simply, changing from lying to the professor to keep her out of the way, to merely telling the truth out of pure instinct. "We've found someone who's willing to train us, but…"

"But you're still no closer to understanding what's happening?" the professor finished for him, smiling sadly when he just nodded, "Unfortunately Mr Potter, the Headmaster himself is in the same boat. Professor Moody has been tasked with investigating how your name was entered, but if he's discovered anything then he's not told me."

The sight of Hermione opening her mouth made Harry falter, glancing over at her to see her frowning before closing her mouth thoughtfully. "I spoke to the goblins about the contract," Harry admitted when Hermione didn't speak, "Because of the age of the goblet, the contract was allowed to be signed by someone else. And we – Hermione – tried to look up magical contracts in the library, but someone had issued out all the books," he added, not wanting to point the finger at the Headmaster in front of McGonagall.

The professor however just hummed, "If you want Ms Granger I'll ask Albus to release the books into your care," she offered slowly, "The school is required by law to have them available to all students, so only the Headmaster was able to confiscate them after the Weasley Twins tried to use them to find a way to enter themselves into the Tournament."

"The Twins?" Hermione blurted suddenly, making Harry jump in shock, "Professor Dumbledore issued the books out to keep them away from the _Twins_?"

"Of course," Professor McGonagall confirmed, looking a little startled at Hermione's exclamation, "They were messing with magic _far_ beyond their comprehension, if the Headmaster hadn't interfered they could have killed themselves just _trying_ to influence the contracts to allow them to enter."

Hesitantly exchanging a look with Hermione, torn between feeling guilty and feeling like Dumbledore deserved his distrust, Harry just shrugged at her weakly.

"Anyway, the main reason I wanted to speak to you," McGonagall started, seemingly not noticing their silent conversation. "Will you two be needing permission to leave the grounds again? If you're being trained I'll need to know the times you'll be leaving and returning so I can build your schedule around it."

"Yes," Harry confirmed.

"No," Hermione denied beside him.

"Exactly," Harry agreed before pausing, "No?" he blurted, turning to frown at Hermione in confusion.

" _Harry_ will be needing permission to leave the grounds," Hermione explained, refusing to meet Harry's eyes, "I'll be joining him during the weekends only. As Triwizard Champion Harry may not need to worry about the end of year exams, but _I_ do," she continued, eyes flicking to meet Harry's nervously, "As much as I want to stay with him, I promised my parents I wouldn't let my grades fall because of everything that's happened recently."

Professor McGonagall didn't reply for a moment, looking between the two of them with a blank expression before nodding simply. "Very well," she agreed slowly, "If that's the case then Mr Potter, I will get the Headmaster to sign off on the paperwork to allow you to leave the castle daily."

"Thank you Professor," Harry murmured slowly to her, staring after her as she just nodded and returned to her desk, waiting until she'd moved through to her office before turning on Hermione who winced expectantly.

"I'm sorry," his pseudo-sister interrupted, "I _was_ going to tell you when I made my mind up."

"Obviously you weren't," he correctly coldly, flinching as Hermione winced again at his tone, "Sorry," he muttered.

"I was going to tell you," Hermione repeated, "I just hadn't made my mind up yet, not until Professor McGonagall asked that question".

"It's fine," Harry dismissed as he grabbed his bag and stood, throwing it over his shoulder as Hermione scrambled to do the same.

"Harry!"

"It's fine," Harry repeated coldly before pausing and taking a deep breath. "I thought you'd be here with me all the way," he confessed, not wanting to alienate Hermione, "Ron's already left me, and I don't want to lose you as well".

Whoa… when did he become so over dramatic?

"Oh Harry," his best friend exhaled, launching herself forward to wrap her arms around his neck. "I'm not going to leave you," Hermione insisted as she pulled back so they could see face to face, "And you're not going to lose me. You're the boy who saved me from a troll in our first year, remember?" she asked slowly, "You're stuck with me now".

"But I won't be here," Harry mumbled nervously, staring up at Hermione with his head lowered. "I'll be spending all my time at the Camp, learning about my parents. And you'll be here".

"I'll be at the Camp too," Hermione argued, tossing her hair back, "But only on weekends. Besides, we still have Hedwig, we can still talk even then. Now," she continued as she linked arms with him and started towards the classroom door, "Are we going to even bother going to history? Or shall we go train in the duelling chamber?"

Harry's head whipped around to face Hermione in shock, his mouth falling open. "Who are you? And what have you done with Hermione Granger?" he demanded, only half-teasingly, " _You_? Skip a class?"

"What?" Hermione asked defensively, looking a little uncomfortable even as she steered Harry in the direction of the staircase. "It's history, I've already finished my history book for this year. It'll be easy to catch up".

"Only you, Hermione, only you".

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"Hello?"

Looking around suspiciously, Harry let out a slow groan as a familiar giggle filled the air, dropping his head back down onto his pillow as he heard the Makhai approaching

"Go away," he muttered rudely as her head appeared hovering over his upside down.

When the Makhai tilted her head at him curiously, Harry let out a sigh. "Go bother the Weasley twins or something," he dismissed, waving his hand at her to try scare her away.

Sighing, Harry rolled onto his stomach to follow the Makhai with his eyes as she floated over to poke at something on his bedside table. "What? What is it?" he questioned when she let out a curious noise and glanced over her shoulder at him expectantly.

"It's a scarf," he explained hesitantly when the Makhai floated out of the way so he could see the Gryffindor coloured scarf, that someone had folded up and left on the bedside table. "You put it around your neck?" he continued as he climbed off his bed to pick it up, putting it on as he turned to face the intently watching Makhai, "See?"

Hopefully she'd be distracted by the scarf and wander off, leaving him alone with his thoughts until Hermione came up to get him for dinner. He felt like he needed time to go over all the information that had been shoved into his brain over the last couple of days. Somewhere quiet and alone. Somewhere without other people to distract him.

The Makhai giggled softly, creeping forward to poke at the scarf around his neck, reaching up suddenly to tug at it roughly. Yelping as he threw himself back, Harry scrambled to pull off the scarf, rubbing at his throat as he scowled at the ignorant Makhai. "Here," he spat, throwing the scarf at the chaos spirit, "Take it".

Glaring at the bird-woman as she played around with the scarf, struggled to wrap it around her neck like he had, Harry couldn't help but let out a slow sigh.

"Here," he repeated, more gently this time, stepping forward to take the scarf from her hands. "Like this," he instructed as he carefully wrapped the red and gold fabric around her neck. "See? It suits you," Harry said quietly as he finished and moved back to sit on his bed, watching the Makhai as she inspected herself slowly, the spirit beaming suddenly and laughing happily to herself as she spun around the room.

The Makhai darted forward before he could react and pressed another quick kiss to Harry's cheek, the spirit almost glowing as she preened and chittered before freezing as an evil expression grew on her face.

"What?" he asked nervously, snatching up his wand before freezing as well when the door opened, his face going blank as Ron stomped into the room.

Shooting Harry a dark look, Ron stomped over to his own bed, the resemblance between his old best friend and Dudley being told 'No' leaping at him. Oh dear Merlin, Harry had befriended a wizard version of _Dudley_ , the only difference between them being that Ron preferred verbal abusing people instead of physically attacking them.

Movement made Harry tense up, as the Makhai stealthily floated over to Ron's bed (despite the redheads inability to see her), a mischievous look on her face as she snapped her fingers with a spark of Eris-coloured light just as Ron reached for his trunk.

The moment the boy's fingers touched the lock, Harry watched as a wave of magic rolled up his arm, Ron's Weasley-Red hair turning a horrid mixture of Slytherin-Green and Urine-Yellow. Biting his tongue to stop himself from laughing out-loud, Harry instead found his wand flicking in Ron's direction, the words ' _Hex Me'_ appearing on the back of the boy's shabby robes.

"Oh Merlin," Harry blurted the moment Ron stormed from the room without looking in his direction. "Did we really just do that?" he asked nervously, a war raging in his chest between guilt and satisfaction.

The Makhai just grinned wildly at him, shooting towards the door and turning to face him, the look on her face screaming " _Well? Come on!"_ as she watched him hopefully, an aura of impish delight surrounding her.

"No," Harry refused instantly, translating what she wanted just from her face alone. "We're not doing that anymore," he denied even as his mind came up with _lists_ of people he wanted to prank for some reason or another.

He hadn't been raised to cause trouble, he'd found enough of it even when locked in his cupboard for the weekend. Why would he go out and prank people when he knew he'd get in trouble for it raining? And then when he reached Hogwarts, he didn't want anyone to have a reason to kick him out and send him back to his relatives…

Except now he did… if Harry were kicked out of Hogwarts he'd just go to Camp Half-Blood instead. He knew the Dursleys would happily pay for the plane ticket to get rid of him permanently. Of course, it wasn't like they'd let him get expelled now, not that they needed him for the Triwizard Tournament.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Harry betted he could away with doing pretty much anything he wanted.

What could they do about it?

"Just one," he promised the Makhai as he dropped to his knees and reached blindly for his invisibility cloak covered trunk. "Maybe two," he altered as the Makhai let out a knowing snort.

Shoving the Marauder's Map into his pocket as he swung the cloak around his shoulders, Harry caught sight of the picture of his family at their wedding. James and Lily were arm in arm, with Sirius launching himself into the picture and into their arms, the three of them laughing as they all fell to the ground.

"Oh fuck it," Harry dismissed as he smiled faintly at the picture, "Let's prank 'em all".

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

Stifling his laughter as he slammed his dorm room's door shut, Harry barely managed to throw up a silencing charm before his own giggling joined that of his half-sister's.

Sliding down the door to sit on the floor, Harry clutched at his aching stomach. "Oh Merlin," he gasped out, "That was bloody _brilliant_!"

"I'm sure it was," came a familiar annoyed voice, making Harry's eyes snap open guiltily to see Hermione spread out on his bed, parchment and books surrounding her. "Because you have enough time to waste going around pranking Ron".

"Malfoy too," Harry piped up before could stop himself. "And Pansy, that annoying stuck up Hufflepuff that called you a Mudblood, and then there was that arrogant blonde Gryffindor fifth year who was telling everyone he could take me with one hand tied behind his back". Harry paused as he watched Hermione trying to process his babbled answer, "He couldn't, if you were wondering," he added absently, "He _can_ chicken dance like a master though".

Hermione, looking a little constipated, just forced a smile on her face. "I'm going to ignore all the countless rules against pranking people, and instead focus on the fact that you needed to release stress and how I haven't seen you so happy in days," she ground out like the very idea of ignoring the rules was painful to her.

"Awfully nice of you," Harry pointed out hesitantly, as he watched Hermione return her attention to the book in front of her. "So," he began when she didn't react beyond rolling her eyes, "Is the library closed for the Tournament?"

"Of course not," Hermione denied, still not looking up at him. "And stop that," she ordered as she reached out to pin a wiggling book in place.

Shooting the Makhai a warning look, because _nobody_ messed with Hermione's books, Harry slowly said "If the library isn't closed, then why are you on my bed?"

The moment the question fell from his lips, gone was the stern looking Hermione of before, and in her place was a nervous and torn girl. "I was looking for you," she admitted quietly, "I wanted to make sure that we were okay".

"Why wouldn't we be?" Harry asked slowly, a little confused about where her nervousness was coming fr-

Oh… right…

"It's your decision," he continued as his eyes flicked to the Makhai, who was doing something suspicious near Ron's bed. He'd had time in between pranks (which was what he was calling sneaking around jinxing people for fun) to vent to the Makhai, who despite not being able to speak was an amazing sounding board. "I can't just expect you to drop everything to follow me into this new world".

"No, you can't," Hermione agreed with a sniff, the girl trying to subtly wipe at her eyes. "I'm not like you Harry," she blurted, "You take everything as it comes, you just let everything bounce off you without effecting you. I can't do that".

Sighing quietly, Harry pushed himself to his feet and padded over to his bed, climbing onto it and leaning against the headboard as he pulled Hermione to him. "You may not have any ties to the muggle world, but I do," she said softly, "I can't live in _three_ different worlds, I can't even handle being a muggleborn witch!"

Hermione looked up at him as she wormed under his arm slightly, "It scares me, Harry," she confessed suddenly, "The wizarding world is violent enough, but the Gods? Demigods? They _thrive_ on war, they live for it. And I can't, I fight if I have to, but I don't think I'll ever be comfortable being in that world properly".

Staring down at the top of Hermione's head as she rested it against his shoulder, Harry frowned. Hogwarts really needed an 'Understanding People' class, he'd never even considered that something like that could put someone off.

He'd been fighting his entire life, against the Dursleys, against Voldemort, against whoever the 'Bad Guy of the Year' was. He didn't really know anything bar conflict, although considering how his mother was the Goddess of Strife, he should probably have expected that. Even when Harry wasn't actively causing chaos, it was happening to or because of him. Somehow he doubted that Hogwarts had to deal with dementors, basilisks or the philosopher's stone before Harry had started.

"Harry?"

"It's fine Hermione," he assured instantly, pulling himself from his thoughts to smile down at his best friend. "I was thinking about how boring Hogwarts is going to be when I leave".

"I thought you might".

"Harry," Hermione continued as he blinked in confusion, "I know you better than you know yourself, you may act like a forgiving person, but you carry a grudge better than anyone I've met before. You may not act like you remember," she added when he opened his mouth to argue, "But you can't tell me that you've forgotten the people who treated you like a dark lord when you spoke parseltongue in second year".

"You may think of some of us like family, I know you love Mrs Weasley like a mother," she pointed out as she pulled away from him, shifting over to face him with a sad smile. "And I know you'll never forget about us, but you've got two godly parents, which means you've got actual family. Merlin, you might even have _siblings_ ," she exclaimed wildly, "And I hope you do, if anyone deserves a family then it's you, but you can't tell me that you'll leave any siblings you might have at Camp Half-Blood to stay in a world that decides it hates you every second day".

"You'll cut the muggle world out of the equation," Hermione whispered, reaching out to grasp his hands, "What has the muggle world ever done for you after all? And you'll never turn your back on magic, even if you do to those who use it. Magic gave you the first happy moments in your life, and you'll never be able to forget that. And the Gods? They're family, you have family at the Camp. Hell, if any of the Greek legends are true, then you're technically related to _everyone_ in that Camp. Half of the Olympians are the sons and daughters of Zeus after all, so the only way you won't have family there is if your father is someone like Aphrodite and was born out of magic instead of the traditional way".

"My father is someone like Aphrodite?" Harry repeated slowly, automatically throwing out a distraction as his mind struggled to take in everything Hermione said.

"You know what I meant," the bushy-haired girl shot back instantly. "I think you'll be happier in the Greek world than you'll ever be in the magical one, as long as they don't find out about your parents of course".

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"Hello, Eris".

Eris; Goddess of Strife paused in mid-action, a faintly glowing bubble held to her lips. Rolling her eyes up to the ceiling, she slowly blew on the bubble, watching as ice slowly encased it before shaking it and letting it get pulled back into the maelstrom of bubbles surrounding her.

"Sun God," she greeted simply, waving a hand lazily and causing the frozen bubble to enlarge so she and Apollo both, could see into it. "What brings you to my humble abode?"

A musical laugh sounded from behind her as Apollo stepped up to peer into the bubble, eyebrows shooting up as he caught sight of the snowstorm currently ambushing what seemed like a single mansion somewhere in the countryside. "You're many things, Eris. Humble? Isn't one of them," he pointed out as he shot her a knowing look.

"Says you," Eris countered innocently, smirking as the tips of Apollo's ears reddening as he no doubt remembered the same encounter as she did. "That poor little Satyr never regrew his skin did he?"

"No," Apollo admitted grumpily, scowling for a moment before a blinding grin grew back onto his face. "But we're not here to talk about me," he began slowly.

"We're not here to talk, end of story," Eris corrected, reaching out and into the bubble to tighten the snowstorm around the mansion itself instead of the grounds.

"That's not very nice," Apollo muttered as he watched her work, "You're not a very nice person," he added louder.

Faltering for a moment, Eris cocked her head and pretended to listen for something. "Did you hear that?" she asked slowly, making Apollo mimic her curiously, "That shattering sound? That was my heart breaking at your harsh words," she dead-panned, sneering at the Sun God as he let out a resigned sigh.

"Do you really think that being such a cruel bitch is going to make your son like you?"

Her hands clenching before she could stop them, Eris grimaced as her snowstorm imploded into the mansion, shattering all the windows and vandalising the beautiful building. Withdrawing them from the bubble, Eris flicked her fingers and watched as a huge black bubble zoomed into reach, Apollo snatching it from the air before she could.

"He's quite the handsome lad, isn't he?" the God of the Sun asked knowingly, peering into the bubble in his hands. "If he were a little older, I'd totally hit that".

"Not if you wanted to keep your dick attached to your body," Eris spat darkly, narrowing her eyes at the younger God as she snapped her fingers and caught the bubble as it tore itself out of Apollo's grasp. "If you want a shiny pair of testicle-earrings however, then feel free".

"Not worth it," the God murmured as his hand drifted down to pat the bulge in his skinny jeans reassuringly.

"Nor are those jeans, you look desperate," Eris muttered as she gently caressed her son's bubble.

"And he looks like his father," Apollo countered, "And yeah, I know who it is, even if I meant he favours his mortal father in appearance". As Eris' head snapped up to stare at him, the Sun God just raised his eyebrow at her dramatically. "God of Prophecy remember? His birth was foretold, quite a tricky prophecy too. If he were a she, then she'd end up killing her own brother and razing Olympus to the ground, all because of you".

Jaw clenching with the urge to threaten Apollo and his manhood again, Eris just forced out her breath and narrowed her eyes once more. "Explain".

"Well it's simple," Apollo said cheerfully as he reached out to pluck Harry's bubble from her unresponsive hands. "If Harry had been born Harriet, then she'd have taken after you. She'd have been a Demigod of Strife," he clarified. "With only minor power from her father. _But_ , since Harry was born with a penis," he continued, making Eris twitch at the God's so casual mention of her son's sex, "It means he takes after his father more than he does you, he'll have stronger powers from his father's side than Harriet would".

"That won't be an issue," Eris dismissed coldly, moving to take her son's bubble back.

"Normally it wouldn't," Apollo agreed as his grip tightened on the black bubble. "But since when have you been normal Eris? You're not quite a Titan, not quite a God, even if you're officially titled the Goddess of Strife. You're chaotic by your very nature, and you've passed that on to Harry".

Eris didn't speak, just stared at the Sun God as he gazed down at her son's bubble, his eyes glazed in thought. "He's dying," the God announced suddenly, "Or at least he will be. Your children normally die in the womb, their own power tearing them apart. Why would Harry be any different?"

"What do I have to do?" she demanded instantly, stepping forward and into Apollo's space. "I've watched him grow up, I can't just let him die. Not my son".

"And the other Gods laugh when thinking of you as a mother," Apollo murmured softly, "If only they knew".

"They can't, or they'd kill Harry before his powers could".

"Indeed," Apollo confirmed sadly, sighing slowly as he held Harry's bubble up and watched the maelstrom's current pull it back into the spiral. "You need his father," he confessed bluntly, turning a serious look on Eris, "And you need to back off, stop influencing his core to take after you. His father's power will stabilize your own, but there needs to be more of them to than yours".

Turning away from Eris and heading towards the door, the Sun God glanced over his shoulder, "If you don't find his father by the end of the year then Harry _will_ die".

"Then why can't _you_ tell me?" Eris shouted, already knowing that Apollo couldn't, his position as God of Prophecy tying his hands and sealing his mouth more often than not.

"This is something that he must do himself," came Apollo's stock answer.

"Why are you helping me?" Eris added hesitantly. She wasn't used to visitors down in her temple, especially not Olympian visitors who want to help her instead of wanting her to help them. The Olympians hated her, and she was okay with that, she was used to it.

Apollo came to a halt in front of the door and turned to fix a serious look on her. "I'm not," he admitted, "The reason Zeus hates you so much? It's not because of the rivalry between his Order and your Chaos. Not entirely at least. The prophecy that foretold Harry's arrival came after another equally important one, a certain _Great_ one".

"He's not the Hero of that prophecy," Apollo reassured her as she stiffened, "But this prophecy has the power to void the Great Prophecy. If Harry was a Harriet, then no matter what the Hero chose, Zeus would still die even if the Titans lost the war. The idea that your child could save or kill father depending on the fifty-fifty chance of have two X chromosomes both terrifies and infuriates him".

"Think about it this way," the Sun God added as he resuming backing towards the door, "Since Harry is Harry, and not Harriet, you've got Zeus on your side. He's not going to smite the only one that can keep him alive".


	11. Chapter 11

The next couple of weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

To Harry, it felt as if he closed his eyes in his dormitory with Hermione, and opened them in Tartarus with his mother and a very familiar spirit of war leaning over him with identical black eyes.

"Hey sweetie," Eris cooed suddenly, making him jump slightly as she turned to the Makhai beside her to add "Did you see the way his nose twitched? So adorable!"

"Mum?" Harry questioned as he slowly sat up on the mountain of cushions and glanced around, "What's going on?"

"War," came Eris' simple reply. "I _love_ humans, they're always going about fighting each other all on their own. That little squabble over in the middle east? All humanity. I had nothing to do with that, and yet who gets all the power? Me!" she chirped happily, a smug look flashing across her face, "I love my job".

"But," she continued, waving her hand dismissively as Harry blinked at her in shock. "That's not why you're here".

After sitting there for what felt like hours, with Eris and the Makhai just staring at him silently, Harry slowly cleared his throat. "Why _am_ I here?" he finally asked.

"No idea," Eris confessed with a shrug. "I know I had a reason for bringing you here, but then this genius in Boston somehow managed to pull of this _amazing_ bank robbery by releasing a horde of stampeding goats into a shopping mall. I got a little distracted," she added.

Blinking slowly, Harry could only ask "How did stampeding goats help him rob a bank?"

"Oh they didn't," Eris admitted with a smirk. "Not until I sent my Makhai to possess them. The chaos they caused before the police were forced to put them down on live television was beautiful. I decided that the pitiful human deserved a prize for his deeds. Of course," his mother stage-whispered quietly, "It won't help him much when the police track him down for robbing a bank without a disguise, but I really care about what happens to him, so..."

"You're insane," Harry dead-panned, shaking his head slowly. She possessed a bunch of goats and made them go crazy… she'd _have_ to be insane to take so much enjoyment in it.

Eris smirked at him briefly, standing up and swaying over to her throne which she sunk into. "You say that as if it's a bad thing," she pointed out, waving a hand and causing the black mist that covered the floor of her temple to surge up and form into a second, smaller throne, that she gestured him into. "Now… since I cannot remember whatever reason I pulled you here, we might as well make the most of it," she explained as Harry hesitantly sat, "Tell me how you've been doing lately, from what I understand you've had quite the interesting couple of weeks".

Harry couldn't stop himself from snorting at the word 'interesting', finding that it was nowhere near as descriptive a word as he would have used. "You could say that," he agreed, faltering at the smirk that spread across his mother's face.

"Well, I want to hear all about them," Eris demanded gently, conjuring a bowl of popcorn for herself and getting comfortable.

"Well uh… you know about Rita Skeeter right?" he asked hesitantly, "She's this reporter I promised an interview to a while ago. The family lawyer outright refused to have anything to do with her, so that fell through for me. Thankfully though she sent me a letter telling me that she's going to have to postpone our interview, since there are strict dates that the press are allowed in Hogwarts that she'll need to adhere to".

"Suspicious," Eris murmured under her breath, making Harry falter.

"Really? How's that suspicious? I thought it made sense?" he questioned with a frown.

"Oh never-mind, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough," Eris dismissed, "Now, tell me about that lovely little girl you met," she requested, "I want to see it from your point of view".

Harry couldn't help but smile to himself as he made himself comfortable on his own throne. "'Lovely' isn't the word I'd use to describe Clarisse," he pointed out slowly, "It's one of the last words I'd use, actually, she reminds me of Dudley _and_ Malfoy put together".

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"And this! This is the forge," Will Solace explained as he led Harry into the marble building, the black-haired boy grimacing and rubbing his ears at the thundering sound of machines and hammers striking metal. "Yeah, the sound takes a bit to get used to," the Son of Apollo admitted with a grimace of his own, not moving far from the threshold. "The inhabitants also take a bit of getting used to," he added with a slight grin, "If you don't find at least _one_ son of Hephaestus in here then it's obvious that the world has ended and you should engage in panicking".

"I'm serious," Will pressed when Harry just blinked at him, "If they're not in here, then they're probably dead or dying"

"Hephaestus. God of the Forge right?" Harry answered, deciding to politely ignore the blond boy's lack of humour, "I take it that his kids are very forge-y then?"

"That's an understatement," Will muttered under his breath, "They're all like scarily obsessed with forging shit". The Son of Apollo paused for a moment with a knowing look on his face, "You're not the most technical minded person, are you?" he asked sadly.

"Definitely not," Harry agreed quietly, already crossing Hephaestus off the list of his possible fathers.

"It's cool, Harry," Will assured him, clapping him on the shoulder gently, "You'll find out in time, I'm sure you will".

Before Harry could respond, he could feel two hands slamming into the middle of his back, shoving him forward and toward the molten metal bubbling in one of the casts. He didn't even have time to scream before a hand was latching onto the back of his shirt, holding him back from the metal as a second hand grabbed him and redirected his fall to the ground instead.

Panting as he rolled over, he stared up at the horrified looking Son of Apollo, the blonde looking between Harry and the brown-haired girl standing in the forge's doorway.

"Good catch Willy," the girl drawled bluntly, not even looking at him as she kept her piggy eyes locked on Harry, her goons cracking their knuckles behind her. "Now scram".

"No," Will began bravely, stepping in front of Harry as he scrambled to his feet, "Harry Potter and his friend are under the protection of Apollo cabin. Any action taken towards either of them will be seen as a declaration of war against Apollo".

The lead girl's eyes narrowed slightly, before she jerked her head to the side sharply. Before either of them could react, her goons had lunged forward and latched onto Will's arms and legs, lifting the struggling boy into the air and out of the way as the girl smirked. "Declaration accepted," she agreed simply, her eyes returning to Harry as her smirk grew. "Where's your friend, Potter? I'd rather get this over and down with by getting you both at once".

"Hermione is off limits," Harry spat instantly, stepping forward and glaring at the girl. Hermione was currently his best and only friend, he wasn't going to leave her to get bullied when she had it bad enough at Hogwarts. "Leave her alone".

The girl paused to think for a moment, a grin spreading across her face until it looked like it would hurt, "No," she said simply, "I don't think so. And what kind of a name lame is _Hermione_? She needs a nice strong name, like 'Clarisse'," the girl who was obviously called 'Clarisse' said.

"I said, _leave her alone_ ," Harry growled slowly, already tempted to 'pre-emptively' hex the girl who was already more arrogant than Draco and Dudley put together.

Clarisse's smirk answered him as she cracked her knuckles and rolled her neck. "I am _so_ going to enjoy putting you in your place," she purred, "And then I'm going after your little girlfriend. Think she'll still be pretty when we hold her down and cut off her hair?" she taunted as she lunged forward.

Okay then. Clarisse was going down, and Harry was going to be the one to do it. _No-one_ threatened Hermione and got away with it, Harry had taken on a bloody _basilisk_ to protect her, he didn't even need to think about taking on this arrogant little brat. (Of course… Hermione had torn him apart later for being so stupid as to go after the basilisk 'just because of her', especially since the mandrake potion was almost done. But that was irrelevant).

Feeling his bludger-dodging training kicking in, Harry twisted away from Clarisse's charge, watching as she almost fell into the vat of molten metal she'd tried to push him into earlier. With an almost concerning lack of sympathy, Harry lashed out, his foot sinking into the Daughter of War's side and sending her tumbling to the ground. Backing away as she scrambled to her feet, Harry just raised his arms into a stance he'd seen Dudley taking and waited, hoping that like Dudley she'd just keep making the same mistakes and wear herself out.

Moving back as Clarisse started swinging at him, Harry timed everything perfectly before reacting, ducking under her arm and dancing past her even as he pulled his wand from his pocket. "Boom," he dead-panned, watching as his whispered _'everte statum'_ struck her in the small of the back, dropping her to the ground with a yelp of pain.

Keeping his wand aimed at her, Harry couldn't help but grin innocently. "I don't know about you, but I think I'm enjoying putting me in my place," he drawled sarcastically. As Clarisse stood and charged him again, Harry could only snort as he hit her with an _'immobulus'_ , causing her to overbalance and hit the ground once more as her momentum kept going even when she couldn't.

"Coward," Clarisse gasped out, "Can't fight me without that stick can you?"

Pretending to pause for a moment, Harry tried to put a thoughtful expression on his face. "Good question," he confessed slowly, eyes flicking to her face as he shot her his own version of a dark smirk. "Don't know, don't care," he dismissed as he aimed the tip of his glowing wand right between her eyes, mentally releasing the spell on Clarisse and watching as she went completely limp on the ground.

"If you can cheat, then so can I," the brunette girl spat at him, Harry's hand emptying suddenly as his wand was snatched from behind him seconds before his arms were being forced behind his back by Clarisse's forgotten help. "Then again," she continued as she climbed to her feet and cracked her knuckles, Harry going limp in her goon's arms as he realised that he'd at least tried this time. "I was just being nice about it, but this was probably how it was going to end up anyway".

Preparing himself, Harry clenched up moments before Clarisse's fist slammed into his stomach, forcing the air from his lungs. Raising his head to glare at her defiantly, he caught sight of the children of Hephaestus that were gathered around the middle of the forge watching them, all of them with matching sympathetic faces even as they stood there without making a move to help.

This place… it was no different than Hogwarts, or than Little Whinging. They would all stand about and watch with closed eyes, just like the teachers at Muggle school did, just like the Professors at Hogwarts _loved_ doing. As Clarisse's fist hit him again, Harry could already envision her getting off scot-free with a mocking smirk on her face as _he_ was punished instead.

"You know," Clarisse began as the sound of a blade being drawn pulled Harry back to the present. "Maybe we should try this out with you first," she mused as she tapped a dagger against the palm of her hand, "We wouldn't want to give 'Hermione' a bad haircut would we?"

If Harry wanted this place to be different, then he had to fight for it. Trying wasn't good enough, not anymore, Harry had nowhere else to run, the reactions of his fellow Gryffindors when his name came from the Goblet proved that.

He was Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and the Twice-Blessed Son of Eris. In Hermione's words, if he could beat Voldemort three times then this puffed up _bully_ wasn't going to get the best of him.

Moving on automatic as Clarisse approached him, Harry twisted in place, jumping up to slam both of his feet into her chest as the demigods behind him let go in shock. Hitting the ground, Harry snatched up Clarisse's fallen dagger and rolled to his feet, ducking under one of the goon's attempts to grab him and driving his knee into the boy's groin. Pushing him to the side, Harry backed away from the four bullies with the dagger raised, muscles tensed in preparation.

Watching as the bullies faltered, he became aware that his eyes had turned pitch black, just _knowing_ that that's what it was that was making them nervous.

"Well," Clarisse said suddenly, standing up straight and tilting her head at him curiously, "So the rumours were true".

"What?" he questioned as the other demigods stumbled away from him to stand near the daughter of Ares, their sudden relaxed behaviour confusing him.

"They were saying that your eyes turned black, and you forced the hellhounds to turn on each other," Clarisse sniffed as she swaggered forward to circle around the still suspicious Harry. "And you've got _some_ fight in you, even if not _that_ much".

"What are you going on about?" Harry demanded, not taking his eyes off her as she gestured for her goons to head out the door.

"Dad wanted to know whose brat you were," Clarisse confessed bluntly, "He doesn't like the idea of his sister, Enyo, getting 'violated' by a mere mortal. But Enyo's children don't do _that_ ".

"Enyo?"

"Goddess of War," Will's voice echoed, the blonde boy staggering into view as he struggled to undo the belt tying his arms together. "Ares' twin sister. She's not an Olympian because she prefers to travel learning all there is about fighting and war. Do you mind?"

Reaching out to cut the belt away with Clarisse's razor-sharp dagger, Harry turned back to the girl in question only to find the doorway clear and her gone. "What the hell just happened?" Harry blurted, turning to look at the equally confused Will.

"I _think_ they were just testing you?" the Son of Apollo suggested with a shrug, looking down at the dagger still clenched in Harry's fist. "And I _think_? I think that you earned Clarisse's respect".

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"Interesting… do you still have that dagger?"

Nodding slowly, Harry watched as Eris smirked at him. "Oh look at my little baby, only been in Camp for two weeks and he's already gaining the respect of Ares cabin," she cooed happily.

"What about Enyo?" Harry asked as Eris grinned to herself knowingly, "Is it possible she's my father?"

"Harry, love, I don't think you understand the connotations of the word 'Father'," Eris dead-panned.

"You said yourself my father could be a goddess," Harry pointed out, "When we first met".

"I _also_ said that your father, whomever they may be, was an Olympian," Eris countered, "The ritual called for a 'Lord of Olympus', which means they must be Olympian, male or female".

"So she's not my father?" Harry asked slowly, just to get Eris to say that exactly. She may have been his mother, but even he wasn't dumb enough to trust her outright.

"No… but I believe I'm getting closer to discovering who is," the goddess admitted. "But enough of this, I have a surprise for you," she declared, "Take your new dagger, and slid it through the middle of your slinky, I'm sure you'll like what happens, since you apparently haven't discovered on your own since I gave it to you".

Reaching into his pocket to pull out the slinky he'd kept on him ever since he'd been given, Harry stared down at it for a moment before glancing up at his mother, who was miming putting her hand into it. Slowly obeying her, he reached through the centre of it, feeling something washing over his hand as it kept going in without coming out the other end. Finally reaching in far enough, Harry felt his fingers brushing against something soft, blinking up at his excited-looking mother in shock as he latched onto it and pulled out a… a bright purple pair of briefs…

"SURPRISE!" Eris screamed, throwing her arms out wide, "I sent your sisters clothes shopping for you, since all you have are second hand clothes which – if I'm being perfectly honest, which is a first for me, I know – make you look homeless".

"You sent the Makhai shopping?" Harry repeated, envisioning the idea of the invisible bird-woman spirits flitting from shop to shop in a mall.

"Well to be technically I sent them stealing," Eris confessed with a lazy wave of her hand, "They're not intelligent enough to figure out how to work a credit card, and being invisible means it'd be impossible for them to wait at a counter".

Feeling strangely unaffected by the idea that the clothing he was pulling from the slinky were stolen, Harry just put it to the side and stood, awkwardly moving over to Eris and throwing his arms around her, the two of them holding the other uncomfortably before they were separating again.

"Your welcome," Eris whispered as Harry sat down again, neither able to meet the other's eyes.

"So uh," Harry began when it became apparent that Eris wasn't going to say anything else. "How, how can I control this black stuff I can do?" he asked hesitantly, "The uh, 'spreading discord' power?"

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"Ah, Mister Potter… enjoying your lessons?"

Squinting up at the centaur standing in front of the sun, Harry shrugged at Chiron weakly. "It gives me a headache," he admitted as the centaur moved to sit beside him, all four legs moving awkwardly until the 'Trainer of Heroes' was sitting on the grass. "I mean I'm used to speaking and reading a little Latin at Hogwarts, but Greek?"

"It does always take the longest for new demigods to learn," Chiron assured him with a gentle smile as he glanced down at the book in Greek in Harry's lap. "Especially when the book the new demigod is reading is designed for intermediate readers, instead of beginners," he added slowly, making Harry blink in shock before groaning.

"Of course it is," he muttered under his breath as Chiron shifted slightly.

"Now, Harry, if I can call you that," the centaur began making him stiffen slightly as he realised the 'headmaster' was about to say something bad. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. This power of yours, your remarkable ability to influence one's actions towards conflict, has raised some concerns between Mr D and I that we believe must be made known to you".

"I'm uh, I'm not in trouble am I?" Harry asked nervously.

"Oh by Olympus no!" Chiron exclaimed, looking a little startled as he shook his head. "We merely wish for you to begin training yourself to _control_ this power of yours," the centaur explained quickly, "A couple of your fellow campers have expressed their concerns that you might accidentally… 'infect' them as it were… during tonight's game of Capture the Flag and turn them on their brethren".

"So," Harry began slowly as he tried to piece together what the centaur was and wasn't saying. "You don't want me playing Capture the Flag until you're sure I won't accidentally hurt anyone with this 'power'?"

Chiron looked uncomfortable for a moment before nodding. "I'm afraid so, Harry. Until we know the extent of your abilities, it would be foolish to allow for their use on your fellow demigods. Should you manage to control your powers, then you'll be welcome to join us instead of just spectating, but until then…"

"I get it," Harry confessed slowly, pushing down the hurt in his chest as he realised that the centaur was correct. "We don't even know _what_ I can do, it'd be dumb to use it on other people until we know for sure".

"Unfortunately so," Chiron agreed simply, Harry keeping his eyes locked on the book in his lap as he felt the centaur's eyes boring into the side of his head. "And as such, I've spoken to young William, who seems to believe you should be kept away from a bow at all times," Chiron continued, Harry feeling his ears heating up in a blush as he remembered how terrible he was with a bow, "Mr Solace has agreed that instead of attending archery lessons, your time would be better served with me in meditation, so we can begin to try understand your gifts".

"Really?" Harry blurted, staring up at the trainer, "You mean I don't have to do it alone? Sorry," he mumbled when Chiron just looked insulted, "It's just at Hogwarts, with this stupid tournament, I'm being forced to do everything alone".

"What of Ms Granger?" the centaur questioned curiously.

"Hermione's helping," Harry amended, "But she's got her own lessons to go to, she doesn't want to fall behind on her studies I mean. We've worked out a schedule, and it's a good one, but I don't want to ask her for help when she's working on her own stuff and I'm stuck. It's my fault that she's behind in the first place".

"Does _she_ believe this?" Chiron countered.

Snorting, Harry shook his head. "She's Hermione, she's my best friend, she'd never blame me for it even if it were my fault".

"Then, perhaps you have your answer," Chiron said simply, the centaur standing up slowly and making Harry duck a flying hoof. "Oh, my apologies Mr Potter, you try having four of them".

"I'm bad enough on two, thank you," Harry mumbled as Chiron stretched out.

"Very well, I shall see you tomorrow morning, Mr Potter. You won't need to bring anything bar yourself and your patience".

* * *

 **PANDEMONIUM**

* * *

"And it's not working that well," Harry finished, watching his mother who was watching him in turn. "I'm getting pretty good at controlling my temper, but this power keeps flaring up the moment I lose concentration".

Eris just kept watching him silently for a moment, before shaking her head slowly. "I believe there-in lies your problem, love," she corrected gently, "You do not _control_ your powers. I am the Goddess of Strife, I do not _order_ things to happen, I _will_ them to. You cannot control chaos, my Harry," she explained gently as she stood and moved over to kneel before Harry's smaller throne, hands cupping his face as she smiled softly at him.

"Chaos by it's very nature is uncontrollable, if you wish to master your powers then you must accept that. Do not force your gifts, guide them, _will_ them to do your bidding and they will. I believe the hardest thing you will face, will be keeping your powers in line, chaos loves to run free, you will have to fight to assert your will over it".

Nodding slowly, Harry groaned as he was struck by a sudden dizzy spell, Eris looking both regretful and annoyed as she pulled her hands away. "I think it's time for you to wake," she explained sadly, "Good luck, and remember your slinky".

Before Harry had time to question his mother's strange farewell, every span and he was blinking up at a concerned-looking Professor McGonagall and Hermione.

"Mr Potter? Good, how many fingers am I holding up?" the Professor asked slowly.

"Seventeen," he dead-panned as he sat up and shook his head, "I'm sorry, Professor, but is there something wrong?"

"I don't believe so," McGonagall said slowly as she kept a concerned eye on him as he stretched. "I'm here to request that you remain within the castle today. There are some technicalities for the Tournament that must be observed," she explained sternly, frowning at the mere idea. "Should you wish, you may spend the day outside of classes, but you must remain somewhere you can be found when it's time".

Glancing at Hermione, Harry subtly jerked his head towards his bed, making her nod and sit down as he turned back to an unimpressed looking McGonagall. "If you send for Hermione then she'll know where to find me," he offered as the Professor looked between the two of them knowingly.

"I'll be sure to do that," McGonagall murmured with a slight twitch to her lips, the Professor sweeping from the room and leaving the two demigods alone.

"I managed to catch Neville leaving the common room," Hermione began as she cast security spells at the door, "He's going to let Chiron know that you can't go to the Camp today," she continued as Harry stripped off his pyjamas and went to change into his uniform. "And you _do_ know that you _could_ attend classes today right?" she added pointedly.

Pausing at his trunk, Harry blinked up at her, completely unashamed about standing in front of her in his boxers. "Do you want me to?" he asked her slowly, something tugging at his memory and making him grin as he moved over to pull the slinky out from under his pillow.

"You sleep with that under your pill- oh!"

Hermione cut off as Harry upended the slinky on the bed, reaching into it to pull out the clothes that Eris had put in there for him, a grin forming on his face that vanished as a pair of love heart briefs landed on Hermione's hand.

"Ew," the bushy-haired girl muttered as she shook it off, "And yes, I want you to go to class with me".

"Then I'll go to class with you," Harry promised, already mentally planning on burning Dudley's old clothes and replacing the ones in his trunk with the new ones. "Well, not potions," he corrected quickly, "But I'll wait outside for you?"

"Thank you, _so_ much," Hermione drawled dryly, rolling her eyes as she stood and started towards the door. "I'll be waiting for you downstairs while you change into a pair of underwear that _don't_ have huge holes over the ass".

"I love you!" Harry called after Hermione as she left the room, a grin spreading wide across his face.

"I STILL DON'T WANT TO SEE THAT!"


End file.
